Where I belong
by Tsuyazakura Kouyuki
Summary: Having started her life anew in the real world, Tsukasa thought that perhaps the bad luck that chased after her since childhood had been warded away. She was wrong. It was still there, and it was threatening to destroy her newfound happiness forever.[Yuri
1. A peaceful Saturday

_Disclaimer: _.hack/SIGN and all its characters are properties of BeeTrain Studio and Bandai Entertainment. They do not belong to me. This work is purely fiction and only meant to be a token of love and gratitude toward an anime series, a masterpiece that I truly love.

_

* * *

.hack/SIGN: WHERE I BELONG_

_Chapter one: A peaceful Saturday _

* * *

Misono Madoka, thirty-seven-year old this July, was an office lady who divided her daily hours between working on the fourth floor of Hakusensha Publishing Incorporation and caring for her paraplegic daughter at home. Her life, ever since a car accident killed her husband and crippled her dear daughter Misono Mariko, was mostly dead. The only wish Madoka had now was to see her Mariko be able to walk once more. She knew it was possible. Her coworkers had informed her that beyond the sea, all the way in the United States, there were people who could provide a cure to Mariko's condition. It was just that... Madoka could never afford the price for her daughter's full recovery with the meager monthly salary she received. She went to the local Shinto shrine every weekend as a result, praying that the Gods would let her win the lottery just so she could return to her daughter the ability to walk. They didn't seem to have heard her pleas. 

Sighing, Madoka washed the rest of the dishes and went back to the bedroom of her apartment on the sixth floor of the twenty-story Kanagawa Place. She would have preferred renting a small house for herself and Mariko instead of this little 2DK, of course. With the child's legs disabled so, the closer to the ground she lived, the safer Madoka would feel when she had to leave the house for work early every morning. The only problem was, again, money. Madoka's pitiful income wouldn't allow her to live anywhere else in Tokyo except this cubbyhole of an apartment, which was already ridiculously overpriced. Had her husband survived, the combined financial abilities of the two of them could have given Mariko a much better life... Sometimes she couldn't help but despair and wonder how the Gods could have put a virtuous family like hers in such a tight spot.

In her bedroom, Madoka changed into an outfit suitable for going out, briefly glancing at the mirror on the wardrobe. She was only thirty-six this year... yet hour after hour of running back and forth between her job and her home had but added a few years to her face, once pretty enough to make any man turn his head and look. Sighing again and trying to forget the thought about how her appearance had deteriorated over the years, she looked at the clock on the table by her bed. It read one fifteen in the afternoon. The appointment at the hospital for Mariko's weekly checkup was at two, so she would have plenty of time left. Madoka wondered if she should take the child to some fancy restaurant afterwards for a change. Gods knew how long they had been forced to live on canned food just because Madoka didn't have the time to cook. She was such a terrible mother at times.

"Come in, mom," said the gentle voice of Madoka's daughter when she knocked on the door to the child's room.

Inside, on a wheelchair in front of the computer desk sat Madoka's daughter, Misono Mariko, in a simple white T-shirt, a blue coat, and a pair of black jeans. The girl was on the phone. Madoka didn't have to guess to know the person to whom her daughter was talking. There could only be one. "See you soon, _An_," Mariko whispered into her mobile and hung up, thus confirming Madoka's suspicion. She sighed. _'The brat again,'_ Madoka thought gloomily. She still couldn't see what her daughter saw in someone with such a questionable character and background like the girl named Shouji An. Or maybe Madoka just disliked the girl too much to do that...

"Shouji-san is coming over?" Madoka cleared her throat and asked. Her daughter's friend once insisted that she be called by her first name. Madoka just refused to and gave no reason why she did. Although it made the girl _and_ Mariko look quite uncomfortable every single time, Madoka didn't really care.

"Yes." Mariko nodded, a little smile forming on her lips. Twenty-year-old this February, with flowing blue hair that fell past her shoulders and a face many girls would kill to have, Mariko always looked mature and dignified, very much unlike the brat that appeared out of nowhere two months ago, Madoka had noticed. She guessed she had raised her daughter well.

"But we are coming to the hospital for your checkup," Madoka reminded her daughter. "Why make her come here?"

"You forgot, mom?" Mariko gave her a puzzled look. "I told you last night that I asked An to pick me up and take me to the hospital today."

"Did you?" Madoka asked absentmindedly, not really expecting an answer, for she had a feeling her daughter was telling the truth. When she came home around eight in the evening last night, she had been so tired that she headed straight for bed without bothering to even change her clothes. She must have heard Mariko mention it and then forgotten about it as soon as her back landed on mattress of her bed.

Mariko wheeled forward and stopped in front of Madoka, where the girl took Madoka's right hand into both of hers. "You have been working yourself very hard lately, mom," she said softly. "Why don't you take a little break today and relax?" Concern all but shone in the child's amber eyes.

Madoka placed her vacant hand on her daughter's head and stroked it gently, her very own overwhelmed with thoughts. She knew that Mariko was very worried about her health, and that the child only wished her well by asking someone else to bring her to the hospital instead... Still, why did Mariko _have_ to pick _Shouji An_ out of all the people she knew?

_'What is so good about someone you had only met but a few months ago, little one?' _Madoka thought. She couldn't quite bring herself to ask her daughter that question directly, though, as she was deathly frightened of the possibility that she would receive an answer she couldn't accept. She knew all too well what kind of feelings her daughter harbored toward Shouji after all… maybe almost as well as Mariko herself did.

"Does Shouji-san know where the hospital is?" she asked.

"An doesn't," Mariko smiled as she let go of Madoka's hand, "but I know, don't I? I can show her the way."

"Well then, I'll go to the supermarket instead," Madoka said in resignation. "What do you want for dinner today, Mariko?"

"Ah, I'm sorry, mom," the child murmured apologetically. "An told me on the phone just now that her father invited me for dinner over at their house. I'm going there after the checkup and won't be home until seven or so in the evening, I think." Madoka's hand, released by her daughter just a moment ago, curled into a fist almost instinctively. Unable to straighten it out, she hid it behind her back. Thankfully, the child didn't notice.

"I see," was all she could force herself to say to her paraplegic daughter. Silence stretched between them, with Madoka standing there like a lamp post and not really knowing what else she should say, until the door bell rang loudly and provided her with an escape.

"I think that's An." A bright smile bloomed on Mariko's lips. "She was in the neighborhood when she called me on her cell phone."

"I'll answer the door," Madoka told the child in a half-hearted voice. Only very dimly did she notice that her daughter had given her a very odd look before she walked out of the room.

"Good afternoon, oba-san," Shouji An greeted her awkwardly the moment the door opened. In a casual shirt, a sweater, and a pair of shorts that barely went past her knees, with short brown hair framing a face that didn't give out much sense of femininity, the girl would have been mistaken for a boy without the curve of her chest. Even her voice was almost as deep as that of a man, for crying out loud.

"Hello, Shouji-san," Madoka said politely. Truth be told, she never wanted to be called _"oba-san"_ in such a familiar manner by someone she disliked... but she didn't know what her daughter would say should she tell Shouji to stop addressing her as such. "Come on in," she invited, her voice somewhat stiff. The Gods knew Madoka still hadn't been able to cope with the fact that she was going to spend her Saturday all alone while her daughter was gallivanting off and having fun with her... friend. It was surely going to be a long day...

"Um, here..." said the seventeen-year-old as she handed Madoka a bouquet that was full of white lilies, the fragrance of which was so strong she very nearly pulled away instead of taking it. "Please pardon my intrusion," Shouji murmured before she took off her Nike sneakers, put them behind the doorstep, and finally went inside. When she walked past Madoka, she couldn't help but notice that the girl had grown a little bit taller. A few months back, Madoka topped Shouji easily by half a head; now, they were of equal heights. She but wondered if youngsters these days all grew up so fast...

"Hi there," said her daughter, who was smiling and waving her hand at her friend. Somehow, Mariko had managed to follow Madoka all the way to the door without her noticing. Well, she wasn't paying much attention to her surrounding she supposed...

"Are you well, Mariko?" Shouji said as she knelt on the wooden floor, right in front of Madoka's daughter. The newcomer then took Mariko's hands into her own and squeezed them tenderly, the former's deep blue eyes locked with the latter's amber, lips curving upward into a bright smile. The way they looked at each other so affectionately, neither seemed to be able to notice that Madoka was standing right there, her hands clutching the bouquet.

"Didn't I tell you that I was well every time you asked on the phone or in The World?" Mariko gave the girl three years her junior a soft smile. She sounded very fond.

"I couldn't see you then." Shouji An returned the smile with one just as soft. "But I'm glad you're healthy, Mariko. I'm sorry I couldn't come online much lately," she said, her tone apologetic. "Life's been hectic with all the midterm exams." She paused and continued, her voice dropping so low Madoka almost didn't hear what she said, "I missed you." The seventeen-year-old girl's face was a little bit red.

"I missed you, too," replied Madoka's daughter, her shy voice equally quiet.

Madoka almost snorted. Shouji An came over to visit every weekend, and according to Mariko, they met frequently in an online game they called _"The World"_. Why did they have to act as if it had been years since they last saw each other... every single time?

Madoka cleared her throat. Each of the two girls gave a start, finally realized that they were not alone, and took up a serious study of the floor beneath their feet.

"It's one thirty already," she reminded them. "You should go."

"Ah yes," said Mariko and Shouji An in unison, appearing more flustered than ever. Madoka believed both of them had forgotten about her daughter's doctor appointment... and maybe also the rest of the world while they gazed into each other's eyes. It wasn't going to be long until that which was inevitable happened. Yet even so... Madoka only hoped that day would never come.

"We'll be going then, mom." Mariko's voice jerked Madoka back to reality, where she noticed that the two girls had already gone outside and were now looking at her. How long did she remain in a daze, really?

"Have fun then, Mariko," she paused, then added, "and be careful."

Each of the girls gave Madoka an odd look before they closed the door and left. Muttering darkly to herself, Madoka went back to her room, sat down on the bed, and took the photo of her late husband, encased in a glass frame, into her hands.

"Kohei-san, I'm really lonely right now, do you know?" Madoka whispered to the picture. "Ever since you passed away, I've been spending all the time and effort I can spare into raising our daughter, hoping she can find her happiness. Mariko's all I have left in this world; although I fear the day where she leaves me behind and moves on with her life, I wish from the bottom of my heart that somehow she'd meet a man who'd love her, care for her, and live happily by her side forever." A tear leaked out of the corner of her eye and rolled down her cheek. "Yet, I never imagined that our daughter would fall in love with another girl like this." She held the frame closer to her heart and sobbed. "I don't want her to walk down such a sinful path... but I don't want to hurt her either. What should I do now, Kohei-san?"

* * *

"I'm sorry, An, what was that?" Misono Mariko, sitting on her wheelchair guided by her young companion, asked when she realized that her friend had said something she failed to catch. At the moment, they were inside a park that happened to be on the way to the hospital. There were other routes, of course, but Madoka would always pick this one despite the fact that it would cost them an extra ten minutes. Mariko was thankful to her mother for that, as she truly loved the cool shade provided by the trees in the park as well as the luxuriously verdant color that enveloped everything in sight. 

"It's... nothing," replied the brown-haired girl, her voice slightly apprehensive. When Mariko turned her head to look, she realized that the face of the girl three years her junior was painted with unease. Mariko didn't really have to guess to know what was bothering the person who had become more than just a part of her life.

"I'm sorry about what happened at my house," Mariko said quietly.

"Not that I'm complaining or anything but... your mom doesn't like me, does she?" An scratched her cheek and gave Mariko an apologetic smile.

Mariko fell silent. The answer to her friend's question was surely a "Yes". Ever since her mom met An a few months back, Mariko had realized immediately that the feelings Madoka harbored toward the girl were less than amiable. Mariko just couldn't understand why. True, An was a slightly temperamental kid who sometimes would get depressed for apparently no reason at all. Sure, her social and communication skills weren't that good, and she didn't exactly feel comfortable around people at times, either, all thanks to the terrible treatments she had received from her father since childhood. But those were no reasons to dislike her, Mariko believed, especially when respect was all with which An had treated Madoka. The latter should have known that had she not been Mariko's mother, all she could have gotten from An was the indifferent attitude the girl assumed in front of nearly everybody else.

Mariko glanced at the brown-haired girl, who was looking at her with a slightly saddened face, and felt her heart clench. There was no one she liked more than An in this world, so she had wanted her mother, the person whom she deeply cherished and to whom she was eternally grateful, to get along with the girl, too. Yet, it turned out that reality rarely was bent by one's wish. She doubted the way Madoka felt about An was going to change any time soon. How sad that the relationship between the two most important persons in Mariko's life had to turn out like this...

"What do you think she disliked me for, though?" An asked.

"I... don't know, An," Mariko confessed. "I honestly don't. But please, don't hate her, ne. Mom isn't a bad person. Maybe she's just... just..." She trailed off, not really knowing what she should say to defend Madoka.

The wheelchair pulled into a halt near a gushing fountain. There were no other people nearby.

"I don't hate her," said Shouji An, who had fallen down on one knee in front of Mariko. The girl had taken Mariko's right hand into hers once more and held it against her own cheek. "No matter how she treats me, I'm not going to hate her. So don't you worry, Mariko."

"That's very nice of you, An." Mariko gave her companion a grateful smile, which made her blush. The girl's coloring cheek was very warm against Mariko's palm.

"Only because she's your mother," murmured the seventeen-year-old. "I can't care less about other people, you know that."

"I can't say I have no problem with that attitude of yours," Mariko gave a quiet chuckle that was part rueful and part amused. "But it'll do for now, I guess." She cupped An's face with both of her hands, lifted it up, and gave the girl a light kiss on the lips. When Mariko pulled away, the face of the brown-haired high school freshman had become so red it could easily match the color of a ripe tomato. An was ever so shy. It wasn't the first time they kissed since their confession a couple of weeks ago… yet the girl never had the courage to do more than just holding Mariko's hand even when they were in private. But the Gods standing witness, An's innate bashfulness was one of the aspects that made her seem so endearing in Mariko's eyes.

* * *

Mimiru was sitting in a slump on the stone bank of the Mac Anu, the river that was the namesake of the Aqua Capital, when someone's hand was placed on her shoulder. Looking up, she saw the tall and wide figure of the Heavyblade senior Bear, who was smiling indulgently at her like a kind father would his favorite daughter. Mimiru couldn't be sure that Bear, a wealthy novelist in real life, didn't see her as one, though. In fact, she had reasons to believe that the middle-aged swordsman saw every newbie in The World as his surrogate child… until they learned how to fend for themselves against the monsters and the Player Killers, of course. Mimiru had never had the courage to tell Bear this but… the man needed to learn that he shouldn't continue to feel so guilty toward his own son, whom he once neglected, that he kept on looking for people to watch over in The World. Besides, he had Tsukasa now, didn't he? 

"Waiting for Godot again?" said Bear, who sat down next to her.

"No, I'm not." Mimiru gave the newcomer a look. That joke was getting pretty old, really.

"Then why are you sitting here looking so bored?"

"Because I _am_ bored," Mimiru muttered. "I guess there's a limit to how long The World can keep my interest. Now with the whole Key of the Twilight business over and Morgana gone for good, it's just… too peaceful around here, don't you think?"

"I don't think so." The other Heavyblade laughed. "Ever since the Crimson Knights were disbanded, Player Killers have been popping up all over the place. Didn't you read the BBS? The dungeons of Carmina Gadelica are crawling with them."

"I blame it on CC Corp. Administrators," Mimiru said disapprovingly. "They made this game. Shouldn't they provide necessary measures to counter people who violate the rules?"

"Well, you see, there are all sorts of complications. For one, they don't have the resources to monitor all the dungeons and millions of users worldwide," the man explained. "The Crimson Knights, on the other hand, had mobility, enthusiasm, and the trust of the users of The World."

"Well, maybe if a new group similar to the Knights were founded…." She trailed off.

"You noticed, didn't you," Bear gave her a knowing smile. "There are very few people with leadership skills among us. The strong PCs usually keep to themselves. The weak ones usually don't have the credibility. Subaru was the sole exception. From the very beginning she had the support of Crim, who was powerful enough to rally people to his cause. When he left, Subaru had already gained enough trust from the members to manage the guild all on her own. Besides, she herself was a great leader. Her will is strong, her heart true and kind. Not many PCs are like that."

"Speaking of whom, where is she lately?" Mimiru decided to change the topic. The conversation was getting a little bit too political for her taste. "I haven't met her in here for a while. Has she given up on The World?"

"Oh she came in here quite often, don't you know?" The novelist gave her a puzzled look.

"Never saw her!" Mimiru exclaimed.

Bear shrugged. "Well, An, I mean Tsukasa, told me they met regularly online during the evenings, once she had finished her classes over in the boarding school…." It was the man's turn to trail off as a look of comprehension dawned on his tattooed angular face.

It was but obvious that the Wavemaster and the Heavy Axe had been hanging out in a place where other PCs couldn't disturb them. Tsukasa and Subaru had been doing that even before the former was returned to the real world, what could stop them from doing it again now? Mimiru only wondered how they could sit in one place and do nothing without being bored to death. Those two girls were odd… just odd….

"Anyways, since you're bored," Bear cleared his throat, "why don't you come visit us? Subaru's coming over for dinner later."

"Really? Can I? Can I?"

"Of course." The middle-aged man patted her gently on the head. "You're always welcome to visit. Tsukasa would love to see you, I'm sure."

"Hurray!" A huge smile split Mimiru's face into two. There was nothing to eat at her house tonight, since her mom and dad had gone off to some high school reunion party without her, and although they did leave money for her to order whatever she could think of, she wasn't exactly in the mood for having dinner all by herself. Bear's invitation, in fact, was a lifeboat thrown to her while she was drowning in the ocean. Besides… coming there would mean meeting Tsukasa again. Mimiru had missed the girl so very much….

* * *

Sakuma Ryo was lounging comfortably in a couch in his living room and listening intently to his cell phone when he heard the sound of a key twisting inside the lock of the front door. He didn't have to wait to hear the voice of a girl laughing wholeheartedly a few seconds later to know that his adopted daughter had brought her friend home. Quickly murmuring a few words of apology and a promise to call back later into the phone, Ryo hung up and placidly walked to the entrance, where he found the familiar figure of the twenty-year-old Misono Mariko. The paraplegic girl, bespectacled and in casual clothes that could hide neither her beauty nor the calm and soothing aura she radiated, was sitting quietly on her wheelchair while Ryo's little daughter was kneeling in front of her and helping her take the shoes off. 

"Good afternoon, Ryo-san." Mariko offered him a respectful bow from where she sat.

"Welcome to my humble abode, Lady Subaru." Ryo returned the bow with a deep incline of his head. "I hope you will enjoy your stay." He made the young woman smile.

"Oh, dad, I thought you wouldn't be home until the evening," said An, who raised her head and blinked at Ryo. If anything, she sounded more disappointed than surprised. Ryo, on the other hand, knew perfectly why the girl did. Years of studying human behaviors for his novels and associating with all sorts of people in real life as well as in The World had but taught him how to derive meanings from even the smallest gestures of his adopted child. Besides, An wasn't exactly difficult to read the way she wore her heart on her sleeve as soon as she got within twenty feet of Mariko anyway….

"BT couldn't come," Ryo explained. "We planned to have lunch and then go to some movie together but she called me earlier and told me that her boss summoned her back to her company. We had no other choice but to cancel the date."

"I see," An muttered almost dejectedly. Mariko, on the other hand, confined herself to a knowing and amused chuckle behind her dainty raised hand.

"More importantly, An," Ryo said casually, "when are you going to finish what you're doing?" He had to try his best to keep a straight face. His daughter gave him a confused look before she looked down at her hands and realized that she was still holding Mariko's bare foot in such a way that she would make any sale assistant at a shoe store blush. Cheeks aflame, the brown-haired girl let go of her friend's foot and started working on the other one while Mariko looked at her with a tender face that spoke of volumes of affection. It would seem that the relationship between the two of them had gone a very long way since An was returned to the real world.

"So, kiddies, what do you want for dinner?" Ryo asked. "I'll be your chef tonight."

"I thought we were ordering food from that Chinese restaurant, dad." An stared at him. He could almost hear the note of fright entering the girl's voice.

"Well, that was what I intended but… I don't really like the one delivery guy they had," Ryo said. "He likes to dawdle so it'd be a miracle if we get our food within an hour. Besides, I can cook, you know." He glanced at his adopted daughter playfully.

"You sure?" An glanced back at him, her pace painted with disbelief. "The last time you made curry, you made it taste like cat chow. Besides… you mainly lived on canned food when I was at school, didn't you?"

"You made it sound like a bad thing," Ryo said in a feigned disapproving tone. Meanwhile, Mariko's quiet chuckle in the background only grew richer and much more amused. "And I will have you know that I followed the recipe very carefully. It had that horrible taste in the end was only because…."

"You mistook sugar for salt," An cut in, "and somehow you managed to pour half a bottle or so of vinegar into the pot without ever noticing it."

"Exactly, innocent mistakes," Ryo declared. "I assure you that there won't be a second time."

"You said that the last time too, and look what happened."

"Oh come on, stop making your father look bad in front of your friend, will you?"

"I'm really glad that you get along so well, An, Ryo-san," Mariko said, a bright smile adorning her lips, true joy shining in her amber eyes.

Ryo laughed "If getting along meant that we argued every time she came home in the weekend or holidays, then we certainly did." That was the truth, though. He and An tended to debate over the strangest and most trivial thing as soon as they went near each other. However, their words never held any heat, and both of them knew perfectly well that they were ninety percent playful and ten percent serious. They argued for fun, and that was it. Compared to the hell that was the cold atmosphere between Ryo and his biological son, verbal jousting with An surely was nothing less than a paradise. Besides, he, too, was aware of the fact that An had been tight-mouthed since she was little. The fact that she was willing to speak at length with him clearly showed that she had accepted him as a part of her life, something that more than warmed his heart.

"Anyways, I was kidding earlier when I said I was going to cook... but I was serious about not ordering Chinese food. Hey, An, how about I take you two to some good restaurant BT recommended earlier?"

The brown-haired girl gave her lips a few thoughtful taps before she said, "I think staying home is fine. I'll do the cooking." She got down on one knee in front of her friend, looked up at her, and asked, "Is there anything you particularly crave for at the moment, Mariko?" Ryo could have sworn that his adopted daughter had never spoken to him in such a sweet and gentle voice before. But well... An showing signs of favoritism was nothing new to him. After all, he knew perfectly well that despite the fact that he had adopted her and given her a new life, he would never be able to grow as close to An as Mariko was.

"You know how to cook?" Mariko blinked at her friend, surprise evident on her youthful face.

"I never told you?" An scratched the back of her head and asked ruefully. "But yeah, I do. Before I came to live here, I spent the majority of my time staying indoor, you know. I had to learn how to cook or I'd starve for sure."

"I see," Mariko said quietly as she looked at An with her amber eyes that were glowing with sympathy. Ryo guessed the young woman was thinking about how much An had suffered during the time she lived with her biological father. Truth be told, Ryo himself always found rage choking his throat whenever he thought of the man who had ruined the first seventeen years of An's precious life. He still couldn't believe how such a vulgar, cold-hearted, and despicable man could exist.

Sighing, he decided to change the topic. "Yes, you don't need to hold out on us, Mariko. Tell us what you want. If An can't make it, most likely she can't anyway, I'll find a place to order it for you." That earned him a glance of disapproval from his adopted daughter. He elected to ignore it.

"Then, I guess I'd like something with lots of vegetable." Mariko smiled. "Anything's fine."

"How about some chicken salad with mandarin orange?" An suggested. "It's easy to make, and it tastes very good."

"Sounds wonderful," replied the paraplegic young lady, her smile growing wider and wider as she focused her gaze upon An.

"An, our fridge is empty," Ryo reminded his daughter. Actually it wasn't, as there were a few casks of beers inside but...

"It's okay. I'll write out all the ingredients I need. Would you get them from the grocery store for me then, dad?" the girl said, seemingly unable to peel her deep blue eyes off her friend on the wheelchair.

"Me? Why me? I thought I _was_ the father." Ryo feigned displeasure.

"Who else?" An gave him a look and acted as if what she said was the most obvious thing in the world. "I'm not taking Mariko outside again in this cold weather."

"You can go alone," Ryo suggested.

"And leave Mariko to you? No way. You'll bore her to death with your old man talk."

"She may like to hear about the novel I'm currently working on."

"No she won't. Your writing is horrible."

"Why you..."

Mariko burst into a fit of laughter that didn't die down a few minutes after An and Ryo had stopped their mock shouting match. The young woman had had to pull a handkerchief from her coat pocket to dab at a few tears that leaked from the corners of her eyes.

"Fine, fine," Ryo said. "Write me your ingredients. I'll go."

"Okay. I'll be right back, Mariko." With that, An hurried inside.

"I'm sorry, Mariko," Ryo told his guest. "We've been talking for so long and we haven't even invited you into the living room. How rude of us."

"You seem to be leading a very exciting life with An here, Ryo-san," Mariko smiled and commented.

"Well yes," Ryo answered with a smile of his own. "The house was always noisy with her around during weekends, so much so that when she left for school, I felt as if it had become quieter than a grave. I really missed her during the weekdays as a result, you see."

"I'm surprised she was _this_ lively at home," Mariko said. "She's usually very quiet around me."

_'Not that surprising, Lady Subaru,'_ Ryo thought._ 'An would be just as lively around anybody she trusts. She was quiet when you two were alone because she spent too much time looking at you to remember how to talk. Besides, she loves you so much I doubt she can think straight in your presence.' _

He couldn't say that right out, though, so he kept his mouth shut. He shouldn't let the two of them know that he had been aware of their _change_ in relationship from the very start, in any event. An wouldn't like it if he did. She'd think that he had been sniffing around on them or something. Once, in the past, when An was still trapped as Tsukasa in The World, she had been very displeased upon learning that Ryo had been investigating her true identity in the real world. The girl's sense of privacy was _really_ prickly sometimes.

Footsteps thundered toward them as the brown-haired girl emerged from the living room.

"Here you go, dad," said An, who handed Ryo a piece of paper as soon as she got close to him. She seemed very eager to kick him out of the house. He could only chuckle to himself in mild exasperation. He guessed a dad ranked way below a girlfriend in his daughter's list, after all.

"Okay, fine, fine, but I'll need to make a phone call first. I'll go after that. Happy?"

"Yep," his adopted daughter with no hesitation in her… joyous voice. Ryo all but wondered whether he had spoiled her too much. But oh well, An was a good girl at heart. No matter how much one spoiled her, she couldn't be as bad at his biological son, he supposed. Besides, he wasn't the only one who did that anyway. Ryo glanced at Mariko, who was gazing at his daughter as if no one else in this whole wide world existed.

"Sure, I'll take Mariko to my room, then," An said. Suddenly, her cheeks colored furiously as though she had just realized that she had uttered something very embarrassing.

"Do you need a hand? Your room is on the second floor," Ryo reminded her. If anything, his question seemed to have only fanned the flames that were raging on his daughter's cheeks. She was red all the way to her ears now. For some reason, though, a faint light of defiance glowed in her deep blue eyes.

"It's okay. I can carry Mariko on my own," An muttered. Ryo wagered that even if An was going to break her back bringing the young woman to her room, she still would not ask for his help. An was a possessive girl, after all. There was just no way in hell she'd let anyone else touch Mariko.

"Be careful, then," Ryo said.

"Yes, I will," answered An as she bent over and carefully scooped Mariko up into her arms. The latter, whose face was utterly gentle and slightly colored, put her arms around An's neck, rested her head upon An's shoulder, and let the girl carry her up the stair that led to the second floor. Eyes glued at his daughter's retreating back, Ryo asked himself for the thousandth time whether An was going to be happier, or sadder at the announcement he was going to make.

* * *

"I'm heavy, aren't I?" Misono Mariko asked as her back was being laid against the headboard of An's queen-sized bed. The brown-haired girl's room, large and better furnished than most of the rooms Mariko had had the chance to visit, contained everything one could possibly need. It would appear that Ryo-san never even thought of holding back on the money when he bought the state-of-the-art PC that was installed with the latest ALTIMIT Operating System, a powerful air conditioner that would be a relief in Tokyo's scorching summers and freezing winters, and a wardrobe that was twice as large as Mariko's own. She guessed it was racked with pretty and expensive clothes, too. Oh how glad she was that An had Ryo-san for a dad, someone who loved her, who cared for her as if she was his true daughter. 

"No." An shook her head. The high school freshman was standing at the edge of the bed, face as red as it was when she picked Mariko up and carried her to the second floor. "You're not heavy," she insisted in a soft voice even when the beading sweat on her forehead told Mariko otherwise.

"I'm a bit taller than you, An," Mariko said with a smile. "And I know how much I weighed. Come over here, please?" She extended a hand to the younger girl, who took it and let herself be pulled gently onto the bed. By Mariko's side, upon the soft mattress, An sat quietly on her knees, chin slightly raised up, deep blue eyes locked with Mariko's amber, crimson face radiating so much heat Mariko could feel it caressing her own face. "Carrying me must have been torturous for you," Mariko joked as she pulled her handkerchief out and tenderly dried An's cheeks, temples, and forehead. When she was done and tried to withdraw her hand, An took it by the wrist and continued to hold it against her face. Mariko felt as though she herself was about to blush.

"Even if you were twice as heavy, even if you wanted me to carry you all my life, I'd be more than willing to, Mariko..." An said, both voice and hands trembling slightly, her eyes downcast. Mariko gazed at the girl she loved, feeling as though she was drifting on a sea of clouds. Those words, simple as they were, must have been spoken with all of An's heart. Else, they would have never sounded so sincere, so affectionate, and so moving at the same time.

Quietly, she pulled the high school freshman into a warm hug and murmured softly into her ear, "Silver Knight was a troublesome man whose common sense was corroded by his code of loyalty and honor. He lured you into a trap in The World, bound you, and imprisoned you. Yet, without him, I'd have never met and fallen in love with you, An. I'll always be grateful to him for that."

"I still think that you're better off without me, Mariko," An whispered back, her arms tightening around Mariko's back, her voice growing more and more anxious with every passing second.

Mariko pulled away and looked at the high school freshman sitting by her side. This wasn't the first time An was bothered by this exact same issue. It was one of the reasons why she _avoided_ Mariko in the first place, for crying out loud.

She could still remember the first offline meeting between her and the girl she had come to love. It was the day following one in which the A.I. _Aura_ awakened, in which the hacker Helba abandoned Net Slum to avoid the invasion of a humanoid data stream that was undoubtedly malicious. Mariko's connection was terminated and she was violently tossed out of The World as a result. When she reconnected, she could no longer find the PC named Tsukasa in any of the Root Towns, or the places they usually went to spend time by each other's side. She had wanted to go to the hospital where Tsukasa was kept in a vegetative state immediately... but she couldn't. It was a Friday, and her mom was still busy at work, so there was nothing she could do. The following morning, on the way to her desired destination, she was finally able to meet the person who held her heart. That person was a seventeen-year-old girl named Shouji An.

At first, Mariko and An were as inseparable as they were back in The World. During the first week following An's return, the girl had no school so she was able to visit Mariko every day, mostly in the mornings when Madoka was already off to work. They would sit by each other like always and simply enjoyed each other's company. Life had been so peaceful, so sweet, and so fulfilling... until Sakuma Ryo-san enrolled An in a boarding school on the other side of the city. By then, Mariko had already realized that although they were of the same gender, the feelings Mariko harbored toward An hadn't changed one bit. The girl never failed to make her heart sing upon every meeting, nor did she ever stop making Mariko miss her day and night. She didn't need to be told that she was already helplessly in love.

Knowing full well that her heart was no longer hers, Mariko tried her hardest to stay in touch with An, hoping that her feelings were mutual. Yet, despite Mariko's efforts, they started to drift apart. The number of phone calls they made became fewer and fewer, the duration of each call shorter and shorter, until An called no more. When the girl stopped visiting altogether during weekends, Mariko was but overwhelmed by anxiety. Since An stopped returning her calls, Mariko had no way of knowing what had gone wrong between them. At that point, she was only afraid that An had found someone she truly loved.

Worried, lovesick, and terribly anxious, Mariko finally decided to call the sole person who could help her. Sakuma Ryo-san, An's foster father. From the novelist's sudden pause on the phone, she guessed he had been very surprised when she asked him to take her to the school in which An was enrolled. Thankfully and fortunately, Ryo-san had agreed afterwards without bothering to ask why Mariko wanted to do such a thing, or why she had to ask him instead of his daughter. Within an hour's time, she and Ryo-san arrived at Touyou Eiwa Jogakuin, in the dormitory of which the high school freshman currently stayed. Oh how An had been shocked upon seeing Mariko and Ryo-san at the door to her room.

_"Dad, Mariko!" exclaimed Shouji An, who was standing behind the open door in a casual white blouse and a pair of blue denim jeans. The left side of her face, surprisingly, was imprinted with a swollen red mark that looked too much like a hand for Mariko's comfort. She felt her heart throb. Did someone just hit An? And why? "What are you doing here?" _

_"We were having dinner nearby," Ryo-san answered after a brief glance at the red mark on his daughter cheek, "so we decided to drop by and see how you were doing." Apparently the man decided not to inquire as to what had happened. _

_"Nearby?" An said suspiciously. Her deep blue eyes were so fixated on her foster father that it was clear she was avoiding looking at Mariko. She only wanted to cry. "But you two live on the other side of the city!" _

_"Does that mean we can't have a meal wherever we want?" Ryo-san laughed. "I'll have you know that Ethiopian restaurant's extremely well-known. Even the infamous picky eater BT was pleased by the food they served." _

_"I see," replied An, who didn't seem to have believed the story. Well, at least half of it was the truth. Mariko and Ryo-san did go to that Ethiopian restaurant for dinner before they came here. Mariko hadn't exactly wanted to do that, for she only wished to see An as soon as possible, but the novelist informed her that An had club activities until seven in the evening every Tuesday so they had at least an hour to spare. Besides, since Ryo-san said that his stomach was empty, and that he really wanted to try out the restaurant BT recommended, Mariko couldn't bring herself to refuse him. She was the one asking for a favor, after all... _

_"Anyways, I'll leave you two alone," the tall novelist declared, "There's someone I need to see on campus." _

_"Someone?" An asked skeptically. _

_"My old friend the headmistress," Ryo-san answered with a smile. "She helped smooth your enrollment into this prestigious school, remember?" With that, he trod down the hallway and left, leaving Mariko at the door to An's room, awkward, tongue-tied, and slightly afraid of what was going to happen should she go inside and talk to the girl she loved. _

_"We can't stand here and talk, can we?" An said after a while, her voice strangely quiet. "Let me help you inside." She ran outside and guided the wheelchair into the room, then closed the door with a very soft clicking sound of the bolt. _

_"So... how are you, An?" Mariko asked once the younger girl had settled on the bed, near where the wheelchair was. There was only one bed in this room, so Mariko guessed every student had their own private quarters. _

_"I'm okay," the brown-haired girl answered, voice a bit stiff. _

_Silence followed, with Mariko gazing at An, who focused her eyes on the piece of red carpet beneath her bare feet. Suddenly, Mariko caught sight of something beyond An's slender shoulders, on the computer desk in one corner of the room. It was a cute white teddy bear no larger than a hand, whose paws were holding a piece of heart-shaped red carton that read, _"For An, my beloved."

_"That's a cute teddy bear, An," Mariko said, her voice oddly calm and collected. "Where did you get it from?" _

_An looked over her shoulder, saw what Mariko was referring to... and her face went pale. "A girl in the movie club... gave it to me before you and dad came," she muttered. "She said it was for Valentine's Day." _

_"Today's Valentine's Day?" Mariko asked distantly. "I didn't know." It was of no surprise to her that she never realized that today was February the fourteenth, in fact, as she had spent the last ten years of her life mostly indoor, where she isolated herself from the real world. Besides, with her mind being clouded by An's absence and unusual behaviors lately, even if someone had waved a chocolate box wrapped in red foil beneath her nose, Mariko still wouldn't have noticed. _

_"A week in a new school, and you have someone interested in you already." Mariko forced herself to smile. She barely could. "Is she cute?" _

_An opened her mouth as though trying to say something, then firmly closed it and nodded. Mariko felt as though a stake had just been driven through her body. _

_"She's... actually a sempai in the movie club," the high school freshman murmured. "There are a lot of other girls who admired her. I never imagined that she chose me of all people to confess to," _

_"Lucky you," Mariko said. The second fake smile came a bit easier this time. Although... it still hurt so much. "I hope she'll make you happy." Oh how those words rang hollow in Mariko's own ears. So this was how one would feel when one fell in love but could never get one's feelings across. _

_"She won't," An said ruefully. Mariko blinked. "She just slapped me and stormed down the hallway before you guys arrived." Her hand rose to touch her swollen cheek. The girl grimaced. "I didn't know she was so strong. Not even Mimiru hurt me this badly when she hit me in The World." _

_"But... she gave you that present and confessed to you! How could she hurt you?" The answer came to Mariko even before she finished what she was saying. _

_"I told her I wasn't interested," An replied, her face growing redder and redder. "Somehow, we got into this huge shouting match and she got really, really offended by something I said. In the end, she slapped me and left." Her gaze fell upon her desk, where her little teddy bear was. "I wish she would take it with her, though." _

_"What did you tell her to have made her so angry?" Mariko asked. _

_"Well... I... I... forgot already," said An, who looked away in what was obviously guilt. The girl was lying. Mariko was about to inquire further when the door to the room suddenly swung open and admitted a tall, lean girl whose black raven hair fell all the way to her waist, and whose face was so pretty she probably could make any man look twice. Or she would have, had a shadow of fury not made her seem more than ready to chew rocks. This must have been the sempai An was just talking about, Mariko said to herself. _

_"Who's this?" the newcomer demanded rudely, blatant jealousy hissing in her heated voice. _

_An opened her mouth as though to answer, but for reasons Mariko failed to grasp, the younger girl went red in the face and said nothing. Meanwhile, her sempai continued to scrutinize Mariko and An with a pair of brown eyes that seemed to glow even brighter than the fluorescent light tube hanging on the ceiling. The tall girl looked more and more annoyed by the second, Mariko noticed. _

_"I'm Misono Mariko," she decided to introduce herself, since it was evident An was trying her best _not_ to do that. "Pleased to make your acquaintance." _

_"My name's Nagamatsu Kaori. I'm..." The raven-haired girl was about to say something else, too, when she suddenly trailed off. "You're _Mariko_?" If her voice was merely heated before, it was now as hot as a roaring furnace. Her face suddenly grew so dark Mariko thought she'd have apoplexy. _

_"What did you come back here for, Kaori-sempai? I thought we were clear. Please leave, I have a visitor," An said hastily. If Mariko were to guess, she would say that An was more than eager to kick Nagamatsu out of the room. Was it because the latter had slapped the former... or was it because the former had some strange motive behind her lack of friendliness? _

_"So _she_ was the reason you rejected me." Nagamatsu Kaori looked at An, her cold and sharp gaze very much at odds with the raging firestorm that was her voice. "You didn't mention she was a _cripple_, though." Those last words came out with a contemptuous sneer on the girl's lips. _

_Face suddenly blank, An closed the distance between her and her sempai, raised her hand, and gave the latter a full-arm slap. As if thunderstruck, Nagamatsu stared at An in disbelief and said nothing while blood silently trickled out of the corner of her mouth. Even Mariko blinked in shock. She never once imagined that An, shy and gentle as she was, would one day resort to violence. _

_"How dare you!" the taller girl shrieked. She fell silent, however, when her eyes fell upon the expression on her kouhai's face. The latter was shorter than the former at least by a full head, yet with her grim face and her thinned lips, An managed to exude a presence that dwarfed that of any other in this room. She looked... murderous. _

_"You say that word one more time and I swear you'll gain more than just a few bruises, sempai," the brown-haired freshman said angrily. "Now leave or I'll notify the dorm manager." Her hand, the palm of which was slightly reddened from hitting Nagamatsu Kaori, was hovering near a small button on the wall. _

_"You'll regret this, Shouji. Mark my words!" was what the raven-haired girl said before she turned and hurried out of the room. _

_Quietly, An closed the door, turned the lock, and then knelt down in front of the wheelchair, her face was a mask of agony. "I'm sorry my sempai said something so horrible to you, Mariko," she said in a deeply apologetic voice. _

_"People have been calling me worse, An, so I don't care anymore." Mariko smiled at the girl three years her junior, then raised her hand and touched An's left swollen cheek. "What I do care about, though, is why Nagamatsu said I was the reason you rejected her. Would you tell me, please?" _

_An gazed at Mariko for a good five minutes, face clouded by a screen of melancholy, before she decided to talk, "When I told Kaori that I wasn't interested in being her girlfriend, she asked me why. I said I was already in love with another girl... and that girl was a hundred times cuter and nicer than her." Mariko's pulse quickened. "Kaori didn't sit well with that, so as you know, we got in a shouting match and my tongue slipped... and I accidentally mentioned your name." _

_Mariko took a deep breath. _"Accidentally",_ An had said. Had she only wanted to use Mariko as an excuse to drive Nagamatsu Kaori away, she would have mentioned Mariko's name from the very start. But in that case... did that mean...? _

_"Why did you say such a thing, An?" Mariko asked. _

_The high school freshman fell silent. When she spoke up again, her face was set with determination, "I'm sorry. I... just remember that I have to do something. I... may not return for the night. I'll call dad to pick you up. I'm... sorry." She rose to her feet and strode toward the door. _

_Being fully aware that An was running away and that unless she was stopped, Mariko would lose her chance forever, she placed her hands on the handles of the wheelchair and summoned every ounce of strength she had to push herself out of the seat. In a loud, painful thumping sound, she landed on her stomach upon the carpeted floor, where she felt a terrible sensation rippling along her every fiber. A storm of fireflies erupted across her vision as she cried out in pain. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't have, as she had fallen numerous times ever since her legs were rendered useless, yet she knew that she needed to, in order to make An turn back. _

_It worked. _

_"Are you alright, Mariko!" the high school freshman cried out in concern and agony as she ran to Mariko's side, where the girl helped her sit up straight. "How did you...?" She fell silent as soon as Mariko put her arms around An's neck and rest her own head on the latter's shoulder, though. The girl understood. "Why did you have to do such a dangerous thing to yourself?" she mumbled, her trembling hands clutching at the fabrics on Mariko's back. _

_"Would you have come back had I not done so?" Mariko said softly. Her young friend opened her mouth to say something, but Mariko hushed the girl by pressing a finger against her lips. "An, today's February the fourteenth, ne? I'm sorry I didn't remember it in time to make you some chocolate," she murmured as her hands reached inside the collar of her shirt and took out her necklace, which consisted of a little silver chain attached with a small bag woven from ornate cloth that she never took off unless she was in the shower. "But if you don't mind, please accept this, An. Happy Valentine's Day." She put the piece of ornament around An's neck. _

_The other girl's deep blue eyes went as wide as they could. "But this... is the _omamori_ charm you've been keeping for the last ten years!" she stammered while frantically trying to take the necklace off and return it to Mariko. She didn't want that, so she put her hands atop An's own and stopped her. _

_"Have you come to dislike me so much you won't even accept a present from me?" Mariko gave An a soft smile that was meant to tell the girl she wasn't serious. _

_She knew why the girl panicked so, though. After all, the _omamorifuda_ hidden within that ornately woven bag was what her mom bought from the Grand Shrine of Ise itself. Shortly after the car accident took away Mariko's father and her ability to walk, while Mariko was still lying helplessly and unconsciously on a hospital bed, Madoka had traveled all the way to Ise to pray for Mariko's recovery. When her mom returned, she brought with her this omamori good-luck charm as a present and told Mariko that she had to wear it on her neck at all times. She didn't know whether the charm held mystical powers or not, but it was a fact that for the last ten years, she hadn't experienced anything more perilous than a few scratches and bruises. _

_"I can't accept this, Mariko!" An said hastily. _

_"Yes you can," Mariko said in a quiet voice. "In case you haven't noticed, I love you, An." The high school freshman gaped at her openly. "It protected me for ten years. Now I want it to keep you safe, too." _

_Silence stretched between them as Mariko gazed at the girl to whom she just confessed her feelings. An, whose face was reddening, decided to speak up after a while, "But... I'm a girl." _

_"I fell for you all the way back in The World, where I had no idea how you looked like." Mariko sighed. "Even after you told me that you might be a girl in real life, my feelings never changed." She took the other girl's right hand and placed it on her left chest. An blushed furiously. "It was your soul that touched me, I told you once, didn't I?" Mariko continued. "No matter who you are, An, I will still love you. I mean it." _

_Her hands rose to cup the brown-haired girl's cheeks. Slowly, Mariko lifted her face and pressed her lips against An's. She stiffened at first but after a few heartbeats, she tightened her arms around Mariko and returned the kiss. When their lips parted in the end, Mariko found An gazing back at her with a pair of deep blue eyes that shone with love. Saying nothing, she relaxed in the other girl's embrace and allowed her head to rest against An's chest. There, she waited. _

_"Ever since we started hanging out with each other in real life, I was really happy, Mariko," An began after a while, just as Mariko had expected, "I... even planned to make chocolate for you on Valentine's Day and confess to you. But then, I started to become afraid." She paused to take a breath, then continued, "I was really afraid of rejection, but you know, the possibility of you accepting my feelings scared me even more." _

_"Why?" Mariko asked, puzzled. _

_"I'm a magnet for bad luck and disaster, Mariko." An gave her a sad smile. "When I was still living with my real dad, he often said that it was my fault his business was failing, that it was me who caused my mom to die." Her face grew so mournful Mariko felt her heart ache just from looking at it. "I think he's right. Staying near me will only do you harm, Mariko." _

_"That's not true!" Inside her heart, Mariko could feel anger rising. What kind of despicable man would blame his failures on his daughter? What kind of lowlife would say it was her fault that his wife died? _

_"No, it's true," An insisted. "It was my fault Morgana tried to kill you. It's because of me that the Crimson Knights abandoned you. I'm a burden to whoever I love. I only invite trouble, you see." _

_"You're not a burden," Mariko whispered. "You won't be. Since our meeting in The World, my life has become more meaningful than it ever was. There were times I thought I would commit suicide to free myself from the hardships I had to endure every single day. An, you're the only person in this world who showed me that there was still joy in continuing to live. To me, you're not simply a necessity, you're my one and only saving grace, you have to know that." Her hand rose upward caress the cheek of the girl she dearly loved. "Morgana targeted me _because_ she noticed I was attracted to you so greatly I couldn't help but stay close to you. I disbanded the Crimson Knights _because_ they had strayed too far away from the ideal I wanted to preserve. They weren't your fault." _

_"But... but..." _

_Mariko broke in gently, "Besides, even if you do indeed invite trouble, I don't care. The worst thing that can happen to me is losing you, An, why can't you see?" Cupping An's face in both hands, Mariko gazed into the girl's deep blue eyes intently, praying to the Gods of Heaven that her words could make An change her mind. From the girl's softening countenance, from her trembling hands that pressed against Mariko's own ever so gently, Mariko knew her prayer hadn't been wasted. _

_ "I'm so sorry, Mariko," was what the younger girl said before she laid her head on Mariko's shoulder and wept openly in the curves of Mariko's arms._ _On that day, they became lovers. On that very day, An made her the happiest woman on Earth. _

"How can I be better off without you, An?" Mariko sighed as she snuggled closer into the embrace of her young, beautiful girlfriend. She was the older, the more experienced, and the more mature... yet in An's arms she always felt as though she was once more a teenager whose brain melted every time she was touched by the one she loved.

"Have you ever wondered how Madoka-san would react should she learn of our relationship?" An murmured atop Mariko's head, the worried note in her voice ringing more strongly than ever. "I mean she's your _mom_, the only family member you have left... and she dislikes me." Her hands clutched the fabric on Mariko's back. "I don't want to be the reason that drives you and her apart, Mariko."

"You're a worrywart," Mariko said after a quiet chuckle. "We'll cross that bridge when we cross it. I'll find a way to persuade my mother when it's time for us to tell her. For now, don't you think it's much better for us just to enjoy the moment like we always did back in The World?"

"But your mom..." An insisted. Smiling ruefully, Mariko decided to forestall her beloved.

"Is my mom. She'll learn to accept you, in time, I'm sure of it," she said. "But why do we have to keep talking about her? Say, An, why don't you show me the movie that won your club the school's award? You know, the same one with you as the leading role?"

"Who told you?" An said, startled.

"Ryo-san." Mariko laughed softly as she raised her hand and playfully pinched the younger girl's cheek. "He told me he was invited to the screening premiere. He said your sempais were very pleased about your performance, An."

"Stupid dad, why did you have to tell her?" the high school freshman muttered under her breath. Judging by the girl's irritated tone, Mariko was quite sure Ryo-san would have an earful from his adopted daughter as soon as he returned.

"Why shouldn't he tell me?" Mariko smiled tenderly at An, her hand ruffling the latter's soft brown hair. An gave a start at the question. Mariko didn't think the girl meant what she said to be heard.

"Well... um..." An hesitated, "It's because well... Kaori was the other leading role in the movie. It's a love story; I played a man, she a woman... and I had to kiss her in the end." She gave an exasperated shake of her head. "I curse whoever it was that wrote that script. And the darned director who wanted it to be a _real_ lip-lock, too!"

"I thought your sempai bore a grudge against you now," Mariko said, puzzled. "Why would she let you do that to her?"

"That's the point. She knew I hated her, and that smooching her would disgust me no end," her girlfriend answered, sounding extremely depressed. "It was her own way of getting back at me." She sighed. "She was right. I spent almost half an hour in the restroom afterwards, trying to wash my mouth clean."

"It's just a kiss." Mariko smiled.

"What do you mean it's _just_ a kiss...?" An frowned at her. "Even if I didn't hate Kaori, there still would be no way in hell I'd be willing to kiss her. Or anyone!"

"And why's that?" Mariko asked innocently.

An's face began to color. "You're the only one I want to kiss... Why do you have to ask me what you already knew?"

"No I didn't. You never told me that right out," Mariko murmured before she raised her head to place a quick peck on each of An's cheeks. Looking at An's utterly embarrassed and adorable expression, Mariko couldn't help but feel that perhaps the Gods had compensated more than enough for her disability by introducing An into her life. "Anyways, where's the recording? I really want to see," she said gently.

"Okay fine," the other girl mumbled as she untangled herself from Mariko's arms and got off the bed. "Don't blame me if you get jealous in the end."

A few minutes later, Mariko found herself once more reclining against the headboard, watching the movie on the flat-panel TV standing opposite the bed, her head on An's shoulder, their arms linked, their hands laced, their hearts beating together in a quiet rhythm. Eyes glued at the screen, every once in a while glancing aside to take in the endearing facial features of the one she so dearly loved, Mariko simply marveled at how well An performed in the movie. The lines she read were perfectly natural, the expressions on her face never seemed faked, and the way she interacted with other characters was simply marvelous. Years of watching movies in her room had finally paid off, Mariko supposed.

Near the end of the movie, An, in a three-piece suit, pulled Nagamatsu Kaori, in a white wedding dress, into an embrace in a church and placed a kiss upon the latter's lips. Noticing the malicious gleam in Nagamatsu's eyes and the tight corners of An's deep blue ones, Mariko turned aside, wanting to tease her girlfriend a little bit. What she found, however, was the younger girl's lips an inch away from hers. An gave a violent start and turned away, her face as red as the content of any watermelon. "I'm sorry," she mumbled.

Feeling a blush creeping onto her cheeks, Mariko put a hand on An's face and turned it around so they could look into each other's eyes. "Why do you have to apologize for wanting to kiss your girlfriend?" she murmured before she moved in, wrapped her arms tenderly around the neck of the high school freshman, and finally captured An's sweet and soft lips. Her body being lowered to the soft mattress of the bed was the last thing she sensed before her rational thoughts surrendered to the earthly passion kindled by the intensity of the kiss.

"Oy, An, Mariko, Ryo-san told me to bring you some fruits..." a girl's voice said suddenly and stopped, followed by the sound of china shattering upon the floor. Startled, An literally leapt away from Mariko and ended up falling out of the bed. "I'm sorry!" Footsteps faded hurriedly into the distance.

"Are you okay, An?" Mariko asked worriedly once she had sat up straight on the mattress. "Are you hurt?"

"Ugh, I'm okay," the younger girl answered and rose slowly to her feet. She winced as she sat back down on the bed, by Mariko's side. "Landed on my back, so..." She trailed off and looked at Mariko worriedly. "That was... Kanae, right?"

Mariko nodded. That voice indeed belonged to Mitsuki Kanae, the Heavyblade who called herself Mimiru in The World. Why was she here today? "Did you forget to lock the door, An?" she asked, eyes glancing at the one she loved in amusement. An wasn't absent-minded in nature, yet with Mariko around, An forgot things normal people rarely would. Like locking the door for instant...

"Well... now that I think of it..." An said ruefully, "I don't think I even closed it. I carried you into the room, put you down on the bed, then..." Her face went crimson, probably because of the memory of what had happened... or would have happened had Kanae not interrupted them. Well, Mariko was at fault, too, for during all the time she spent with An in this room, she never paid a scrap of attention to the door, or even cared whether it was open or not. She guessed she had become forgetful in An's presence, just as the latter was in hers.

"Anyways, I think I'll go talk to her, wait for me a little bit, ne?" was what An said before she gathered the broken shards of the china disc into a rubber tray and left, her face heavy with worries.

Alone in the room, Mariko began to think about the consequences of this unexpected turn of events. Now that Kanae had found out about her and An's relationship... what would the girl do? Would she make a fuss and start to avoid them because of their love? Or would she laugh it off and act like nothing had happened? Mariko only hoped it was the latter. Kanae was a good friend who had shared more than just ups and downs with them in The World. Mariko truly didn't want to lose her.

* * *


	2. Love and despair

_

* * *

.hack/SIGN: WHERE I BELONG_

_Chapter two: Love and despair  
_

* * *

"Uh, hi there!" Mitsuki Kanae exclaimed awkwardly when she opened the door to An's room and found the paraplegic young woman sitting on the bed with her back against the headboard. "Uh, how are you?" She climbed onto the bed and settled down by Mariko's side, carefully making sure that she wouldn't sit on the latter's legs by mistake. Stealing a glance at the twenty-year-old, Kanae felt warmth blossoming on her cheeks. She seriously doubted the image of An and Mariko on the bed, arms entwining around each other's body, lips locked in a kiss, was going to fade from her mind anytime soon. Sure, she had been going online since she was twelve or so... but honestly she hadn't seen two girls kissing ever before. That... surely was a first.

"Hi, Kanae," Mariko said with a smile. "It's been more than a month since we last hung out in Shimokitazawa, hasn't it? How've you been?"

"Same old, same old." Kanae returned the smile. "It's still boring as usual."

"Boring? Shouldn't you be worrying about your senior high entrance exam right now?"

"Oh that. My school has an elevator system extending all the way through college," Kanae answered with a grin. "That's why everything's kinda lax in my class. That's why I could spend so much time in The World with you guys when every kid my age went crazy doing homework or getting supplementary classes."

"And that's also why you were bored most of the times?" Mariko chuckled quietly behind her raised hand.

"Well, I guess." Kanae scratched the back of her head and laughed. "What am I to do? The teachers don't assign much homework, they don't lecture seriously, and they won't even bother to check if we're cheating during exams. I'm not exactly motivated to study in that case now am I?"

"Sounds like it'd be a breeze until you graduate from the university, then," the young woman commented, her smile unwavering on her lips. Kanae couldn't help but notice that Mariko had been smiling a lot more than she used to when she, An, and Kanae went window-shopping in the Shimokitazawa Mall. If anything, Mariko's smiling face only enhanced the natural charm and beautiful face that Kanae would kill to have. She guessed this was how one would become when one fell in love...

"Is there something on my face?" Mariko asked suddenly. Kanae gave a start. She had been staring openly at the young woman, it appeared.

"Oh no, it's... nothing!" Kanae said hastily. She didn't have to find a mirror to look into to know that she was blushing. She should have knocked before she entered even when the door was open. That way, she would have remained blissfully ignorant about the whole relationship business between her girl friends. That way... she wouldn't have realized what kind of effect the very sight of An kissing Mariko so affectionately would produce on her mind.

"So, why did you come back here alone, Kanae?" Mariko asked. "Where's An?"

"Ah, we were... um... talking on the balcony when Oji-chan called An and told her that the ingredients were ready," she explained. "She's down in the kitchen right now."

"Has An managed to tell you about us before she was called to the kitchen?" Mariko said quietly.

"Yeah... she did." Kanae scratched the back of her head again.

"I'm sure our images in your mind have changed somewhat, ne?" Mariko said, her smile growing more and more rueful after every word. "I'm sorry we kept it from you. Would you forgive us?" Mariko gave Kane a deep bow where she sat.

"Forgive... What is there to forgive?" She scratched the back of her head again and gave a quiet chuckle. "Is there any rule that says you _have_ to tell your friends the second you start dating?"

"Guess there isn't," Mariko smiled and said.

"Say, Mariko, um..." Kanae gave the woman five years her senior a gentle poke on her arm with her finger. "What do you usually do when you're together?" A mischievous grin curved her lips, which made the blue-haired young woman color faintly. She looked nothing alike the Heavy Axe Subaru, Leader of the proud and prickly Crimson Knights. "Give me the juicy details, will you?"

In The World, Mariko was the very example of a perfect leader. She was in total control of her emotion, she was able to keep her calm even in dire situations, and she commanded a presence that inspired confidence and awe. Yet, Kanae wagered that no one could have associated the unflappable Lady Subaru with this paraplegic woman sitting on the bed, who was growing embarrassed just from a simple question posed to her by a junior high student.

"Oh come on," she urged, "It's not that difficult. It's not like I asked where An touched you when you two were in private, right?" Unable to help herself, Kanae let out a small giggle that earned her a _very_ startled look from Mariko.

"What kind of perverted fifteen-year-old are you, Kanae?" the young woman asked, the color on her cheeks deepening after every passing second.

"One whose classmates spent a lot of time gossiping about that kind of stuff?" she countered with a grin. "I'm not interested, for your information, but when they kept on droning about it every time they were out of the teacher's earshot, I couldn't help but learn a few things even when I tried not to."

"Your school's a co-ed one, isn't it?"

"Yup." Kanae nodded. "Why did you ask?"

"I'm just curious," replied the paraplegic woman. "I've always attended all girls' schools all the way through senior high, you see. That's why I sometimes wondered how it'd feel to have boys for classmates." She poked Kanae gently on the shoulder. "How many of them do you have in your class?"

"Quite a few," she answered. "They're a bunch of good-for-nothing, though. They mainly stuck together and drooled like a bunch of dimwits over the ero-magazines they snuck into the classroom. Sometimes I think they have too much hormones for their own good." Her mouth twisted slightly in distaste. "What's with them and their fascination over big boobs anyway?"

"They can't be all bad," Mariko commented in amusement. "There has to be someone you don't dislike, I'm sure."

"None I tell you, none!" As soon as she finished saying that, she blinked and gave Mariko a sidelong glance. "You sneak, Mariko," she said, "you're trying to change the topic and make me forget about my inquiry, aren't you?" The grimace that was formed on the blue-haired woman's face told Kanae that she had guessed correctly. "Nice try, but it isn't going to work. When I want something, I won't stop until I get it." Heck, even An, when she was still trapped as Tsukasa in The World, failed to chase Kanae away once she had made up her mind that she was going to become the other girl's friend no matter what. If Kanae wanted, she could be even more unrelenting than a vial of superglue.

"If you want to know so badly, why don't you get a girlfriend, Kanae?" Mariko suggested with a playful gleam in her amber eyes. "Wouldn't it be much better than me telling you about it?"

"Gods, no!" Kanae exclaimed. "Girls are even worse than boys in some aspects, for pity's sake!"

If she was irritated by the boys, she was almost driven insane by the female population of her class. During her three years in junior high, she constantly found herself wondering whether the other girls had other things to think about rather than boys who obviously were only interested in their bust size. That was why during those last three years, Kanae had stayed a loner. She did try to seek out others and make friends so that she could find some saving grace in a school that bored her to death, she did! Too bad, she never succeeded. She guessed it was because she was too much of a tomboy whose hobby involved online gaming, which normal school girls weren't terribly fond of. There had been times she considered conforming to the others' taste… yet the very thought of spending hours flipping over shoujo manga, gossiping about boys, and exchanging small talks frightened Kanae no end. She told the young woman as much.

"Now you're being difficult." Mariko chuckled softly. "You frown on boys. You dislike hanging out with girls. How on Earth are you going to find yourself a romantic interest?"

"Don't need one, don't want one." Kanae stuck out her tongue. "Significant others are a pain to deal with in the first place." She blinked at Mariko. "But hey, you're avoiding the issue again," she pointed out. The young woman sighed.

"You're really persistent, you know," she said in a resigned manner. "What do I have to do to make you give up?"

"There's nothing you can do," Kanae declared. "Let me be honest with you, if you don't give me the answer I want, I'll ask some worse questions." She grinned in such an evil way that she even managed to make Mariko swallow audibly in shock. "You're not going to like them, I assure you."

"Okay, fine..." Mariko said finally. Kanae could tell, the woman had stopped thinking that she could get out of this room without telling Kanae wanted to know. She rewarded herself with a satisfied nod and a quiet chuckle. This surely was going to be fun.

* * *

Looking around the dinner table, which consisted of a circular slab of marble stone resting on four wooden legs, Sakuma Ryo felt as though he was tasting dust in his mouth, not the chicken salad with mandarin that his adopted daughter had spent an hour to make. It wasn't that the food was bad. In fact, when the kid brought the dish to the table, Ryo had simply marveled at her skill, as did the other two girls who sat on either of An's sides at the table. Yet, after a few bites, his appetite winked out of existence. He glanced at the dark-haired fifteen-year-old sitting on his daughter's left, Mitsuki Kanae, who was doing her best to suppress her uneasiness but not quite succeeding. Once in a while, the girl would steal a glance at An and Mariko, who were sitting quietly, eating, and gazing at each other in a way that excluded intruders. Well, he couldn't blame Kanae for feeling uncomfortable around the two lovebirds. Even he sometimes found himself wishing that they would either admit it to his face that they were an item... or just refrain from showing such intimacy to people from whom they _tried_ to hide their relationship.

His eyes returned to the junior high student. If Kanae was reacting this way around An and Mariko, it only followed logically that she, too, had discovered the kind of bond her friends shared. He gave his lips a thoughtful tap. After he asked Kanae to bring a dish of fruits to An's room about an hour earlier, he had heard the former's startled voice and the shattering sound of china almost immediately afterwards. A few minutes later, he found the two girls standing on the balcony and talking to each other in such low voices that he couldn't hear a word from either. Yet, he had realized that something was amiss the moment he noticed that the expression on An's face was rueful while that on Kanae's was a thorough mix of amusement and surprise. Now that he looked back at it, yes, it all made sense. Kanae must have walked in on An and Mariko, consequently learning the truth.

_'Gods, shouldn't you be a little bit more discreet about it, An?'_ Ryo mused to himself.

Still, the sudden disappearance of his appetite had nothing to do with Kanae's discomfort. On the other hand, it had everything to do with the couple who couldn't seem able to peel their eyes off each other except once in a while to eat their food. Ryo sighed softly. Looking at them being so happy around one another so, who would have the heart to announce what he was going to?

Still... it was what he had to do... so he had better be quick about it.

"May I have your attention, ladies?" Ryo called as the same time he tapped his silver spoon on the rim of the china bowl. Three pairs of eyes, one brown, one blue, and one amber, swiveled to meet his. He cleared his throat, feeling a pang of guilt in his heart, before he began slowly, "I've been doing researches and making phone calls lately in the hope of finding a way to cure Mariko's condition."

Those pairs of innocent eyes widened upon the revelation, all three shone with surprise, two of them glowing with gratitude that seemed to hurt him more than made him feel happy. Still, the girls kept silent as though waiting him to finish making his announcement. From the way An's right arm and Mariko's left were coordinated, there was no doubt these two were holding each other's hand beneath the marble slab that was the dinner table.

Sighing, Ryo continued, "Two days ago, a contact of mine informed me that the UCLA in California, a famous and trustworthy medical center, has come up with a new method to effectively cure paraplegia via surgical operation and physical rehabilitation. They were confirmed to have been successful in a few cases brought to their attention, in which the patients' ability to walk was restored." He paused to look at his audience then added, "I would say that if we can bring Mariko to the U.S., the chance of her recovery is miraculously high."

"But..." the young woman hesitated, "My mom can never afford the fee." An glanced sideways at her girlfriend, appearing to be doing her best to restrain herself from pulling the latter into a hug. Kanae's eyes, however, remained fixed on An's worried face.

"That's where my friend comes into the picture," he said. "Through her, I managed to get in touch with an international charity association also headquartered in the U.S. Knowing about Mariko's condition, they had promised to fully sponsor her treatment in UCLA." Ryo gave each of the girls a reassuring smile. "You don't have to worry about a thing, Mariko. The association will even cover the living cost for your guardian, namely your mom, who'll be accompanying you to the States."

"Is... it... real?" Mariko said wonderingly, her hands rising up to cover her mouth, her eyes growing wetter after every heartbeat. "I... I... don't know what to say... Ryo-san... Thank you!"

Unable to say anything else, she buried her face in her hands and wept. Ryo's adopted daughter quietly pulled the older woman into her arms and gently ran her hand up and down the small of the latter's back. The brown-haired girl, too, seemed to be on the verge of tears. Of course, there could be no joy greater than knowing that the one she loved now had a chance of once again having the life of a normal person, the life that was robbed from her by the nasty car accident that killed her father and disabled her legs. Even Ryo himself felt moisture growing in his eyes.

"I'm sorry if I sound skeptical..." Kanae spoke up in a rueful voice, "but is there no catch at all?"

_'She's sharp,' _Ryo thought. Next to her, An was using the sleeves of her shirt to dry the tears on Mariko's face. Then both of them heard what Kanae said, looked up at her, then turned their attention on him, their eyes troubled by the same question.

"Yes, there is a catch," he admitted. He could feel the large dining room becoming so quiet they would probably hear the sound of a needle falling to the floor. "The only condition is that Mariko will have to stay in the hospital for one full year so that the researchers can collect data on her recovery. Every patient must agree to that if they wish to receive treatment."

"Oh, it's not really a catch, is it?" Kanae burst into laughter, tension draining from her face. "It's not like they wanted to you sell them your soul or anything. Just one year of staying in the U.S. is no biggie..." She stopped abruptly as soon as she looked in the other two girls' direction and saw that they had fallen deathly still. A light of comprehension dawned on Kanae's youthful face. All three of them had realized the only one drawback of this gracious offer from beyond the sea, which was the fact that An was not going to be able to see Mariko, or stay by her side, for one full year. Ryo didn't know what Mariko was thinking... but he could almost read the thoughts that were whirling around in the child's mind. To a person who was possessive of the one she loved like An, it was a fate not quite unlike death.

* * *

Mitsuki Kanae, treading beneath a white umbrella that sheltered her from the heavy rain that was plummeting upon the streets of Tokyo, couldn't seem to be able to lift yesterday's events from her mind. She sighed. Perhaps it would have been better off for her had she stayed home the night before and ordered pizza instead of accepting Ryo-san's invitation to dinner at his house. That way, she wouldn't have had to learn the truth about her friends' relationship. That way... she wouldn't have had to see how much it pained An to know that her girlfriend's recovery was going to cost her a price perhaps much higher than what she could possibly pay.

Kanae sighed. Once Ryo-san had finished announcing that piece of devastating news, An had sat there in dead silence and looked like someone whose life had just been sucked out of her. She recovered quickly, though. After a few minutes, the high school freshman was once again all smiles as though it didn't bother her at the very least. Kanae got to admit that An was a good actress... but she wasn't that good, really. No matter how hard she tried to pretend to be cheerful, she couldn't fool the people who sat around her at the table. An's foster father surely didn't believe her the way he looked at her with an agonized and guilty look on his face. Mariko, who should know more about An than any other person in the world, certainly didn't buy it the way she gazed at An quietly with teary eyes for a moment before she excused herself to go to the bathroom, alone, without An's help. As for Kanae, she said nothing and kept her opinion to herself. The rest of that evening was spent sitting in the living room of the Sakuma household and playing Poker with three people who didn't pay much attention on the cards in their hands. Kanae ended up winning almost every game as a result.

Kanae sighed again. An shouldn't have tried to hide her thoughts so hard. Although Ryo-san and Kanae weren't as close to the high school freshman as Mariko was, they were more than capable of guessing just exactly what An was thinking in that situation. An must have been dying inside, obviously, for she was well aware that she was going to spend one whole year without Mariko by her side. Of course, one could argue that the two of them could still meet online, in The World, like they usually did... but really, it was very much similar to drinking sea water to quench one's thirst. Besides, Kanae doubted they were going to let Mariko bring a computer into a hospital just because she wanted to play The World.

Well, perhaps other people would find it hard to understand how one year of separation could affect Shouji An so greatly... but only because they didn't know what kind of person the girl was, or how much Mariko meant to her. Back in The World, Mariko was the sole reason why An kept on fighting to return to reality. Now that they had become lovers, perhaps it was no exaggeration to say that An's world revolved around Mariko alone. The latter, wise beyond her years, was deeply concerned about this fact. During their conversation yesterday, Mariko once confessed that she had realized An was growing more emotionally attached to her than ever. Although it made the young woman very happy, her skin still crawled whenever she thought of what was going to happen to An should something befall the former. Kanae had shivered hearing those very words.

Kanae's heart went out to An, in any case. The girl, no matter how selfish she was, knew that Mariko's treatment had the highest priority. That was why she only showed the others the happiness that was brought to her by the medical offer and hid within her heart the grief caused by the news that Mariko was going to leave for a place she couldn't possibly follow. It was going to be one long and torturous year for An. Kanae had never had a girlfriend, or boyfriend for that matter, during the first fifteen years of her life... but she could imagine how it would feel to be half a world away from the one she loved. And knowing An's temperamental and clingy personality, the girl had to feel ten times as much. Poor girl.

Still, it wasn't as if An would be left alone in this world anyway. Mariko might be off all the way in the U.S... but Kanae would still be there for An as long as the girl needed her. That had to help in lifting the high school freshman's solitude... right? Kanae stopped abruptly in front of a large video store, on the front of which hung a large poster that showed a couple standing in each other's embrace, lips an inch apart. For some reason, the poster drew her attention the way magnets did iron. She found her eyes glued at the laminated piece of paper, and at the faces of the couple, who were gazing lovingly into each other's eyes. Her mind began to wander... and an image popped up in her head. It was what she had seen when she walked past the open door of An's room yesterday. It was what had made her drop her fruit tray onto the ground and hurriedly retreat from the room as though hell was on her heels. It was the scene of An and Mariko lip-locking on the bed. Except that... for some reason... Mariko's face began to fade... and Kanae's own appeared in its place instead.

She gave a violent start that nearly dropped the umbrella from her hand. Her cheeks suddenly became so hot that she was under the impression that if a drop of rain fell on her face, it would be instantly vaporized. She peeled her eyes off of the poster and glared at the ground as though it was the cause of her perverted thought.

Kanae gave her head a thorough shake. She shouldn't wallow in denial anymore. The fact that she liked An more than just a friend was but obvious. She had realized it as soon as she saw the girl kiss Mariko yesterday, for that moment was also the one in which she felt her heart clenching. Her suspicion was confirmed during her conversation with the paraplegic young woman, who had told Kanae how she and An became lovers and how happy she was once they started going out. Kanae, of course, was glad that her friends had found the happiness that they deserved... but at the same time she couldn't help but feel jealous toward Mariko and wish that she had been in the young woman's place. It had disturbed her so... Yet, it wasn't as if she was madly in love with An or anything. In time, her childish crush – she _hoped_ it was just a childish crush – would fade and return her life to what it once was.

Sighing one last time, Kanae folded her umbrella and stepped into the movie rental store. Although the rain clouds had curtained the heavens and invited darkness to encompass everything in sight, it was still just two in the afternoon on a Sunday. And Kanae had nothing to do for the rest of the afternoon and the evening. She might as well rent a few movies so she could chase away the boredom that had been haunting her since Friday night, she thought. Well... she guessed she should have gone back to the local rental store... but that store was really small, and it didn't carry as many titles as Kanae hoped it would. This store, however, looked much bigger than the one near her house, and it wasn't that far away anyways, so why shouldn't she take a chance?

* * *

"Welcome," Kozuka Hiroyuki spoke perfunctorily as soon as he heard the electric bell chiming and announcing that someone had stepped past the door to the shop. When he looked up from his Megami Magazine, which was laid upon the circulation desk at the far end of the room, he found a teenaged girl with dark hair that fell to her shoulders and a slightly bored expression on her youthful face.

"Hi," said Hiroyuki's young customer as she placed her dripping umbrella in the racket that sat near the entrance to the store. After that, she walked to the nearest aisle, where the newest releases were shelved, and started to inspect the empty DVD cases one by one with great interest. Since he didn't care enough to make sure each and every minor who walked into this store wouldn't sneak into the adult section, as his manager had drilled into him over and over, Hiroyuki returned his attention to his favorite magazine and feasted his eyes upon the screenshots and reviews of the latest anime. Every time he looked up to check on the girl, though, he would find her standing in a different place, and there would be another DVD case added to the stack that she was carrying. A couple of minutes after he had glanced her way last, the girl walked to the far end of the room and placed on top of the circulation desk half a dozen cases, all of them anime titles.

"This many?" Hiroyuki blinked at his unusual customer. He had never seen someone who wanted to rent so many titles at once ever since he started to work part-time in this rental store. "Miss, are you aware that these titles are new, so you have to return them the next day to avoid being charged extra?" He pointed his finger at a small piece of note that was glued on the front of each of the DVD case, which said almost the same thing as what he just did.

"Yup, I saw that," the girl answered, her brown eyes, slightly tinged by annoyance, regarding him curiously. "What about it?"

"Nothing." Hiroyuki shrugged. He seriously doubted that she could finish so many titles before this store closed down tomorrow... but who was he to say anything if people wanted to waste their money anyways? "Can I have your Membership card, miss?" He extended his left hand to the girl while his right one entered a few commands into the computer. The default blue ALTIMIT desktop screen was instantly replaced by the interface of the program that recorded every rental operation in the shop.

"Don't have one," she said. "It's the first time I'm here."

"Ah, I see," he replied nonchalantly. "I'm afraid you'd have to apply for one. It's free, though. Would you like to do that?"

"Sure."

"Will you fill out this form for me?" Hiroyuki pulled a piece of paper and a pen from the drawer under the desk and placed it in front of the girl. "And I'll need your government-issued ID, too," he added.

"Okay," was what she muttered before she took up the pen and started scribbling on the paper.

Hiroyuki was pondering whether he should just wait for her to finish or read the rest of current page in the magazine when the electric bell chimed again.

"Oy, Hiro," greeted the newcomer, who was a lanky young man with short spiky hair and a broken nose. The guy's name was Shimatani Kouta, Hiroyuki's neighbor, his childhood friend, and also his former online gaming buddy. Hiroyuki sighed. He believed he knew just exactly why the man went all the way to this store. It wasn't the first time he was approached during the last week, of course.

"If you came here to talk about the same thing you did yesterday, you've wasted your time and effort. The answer's still _'No'_," Hiroyuki said in a flat tone. The scribbling sound his only customer was making just a second ago ceased abruptly. He could even feel the girl's brown eyes on him. He paid her no mind. it was not as if they were discussing top-secret stuff anyway.

"Oh come on, don't say that," said Kouta, who scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. The guy was transparent and as easily to read as an open book, he just didn't know it. "We need you in the game, man."

Hiroyuki glanced at the only girl in the store and found himself being studied openly by his target. She appeared interested as soon as she heard Kouta utter that word "game", so he couldn't help but wonder if she was a gamer, too.

"It's the ten thousandth time you said it to me." Hiroyuki sighed in exasperation. "Shouldn't you have realized that you can't change my mind? I've lost interest in The World, Kouta." The instant he mentioned the name of the famous MMORPG was also the one in which he heard a sharp intake of breath from his young customer. There was no doubt about it. She was a gamer, and she was playing The World.

"But what about your sense of justice and order?" Kouta said pleadingly. "You were devoted to the team before, weren't you? We know how much you loved what you did. Why won't you join us again? We need someone who can help us put the Player Killers in line. Someone like you, Captain!"

"You overestimated me," replied Hiroyuki calmly. "You can find a better leader amongst the old members, I'm sure. Besides, I need a life, Kouta. Look at me, I'm twenty-three and I have no steady income, no car, no girlfriend. Some people would call me lame."

"Just admit it, Hiro," said Kouta crossly. Hiroyuki could tell that perhaps his unwavering decision had finally managed to tick his childhood friend off. "You don't play the game anymore because Subaru isn't there anymore, right?" accused the man. "Get over that good-for-nothing hypocrite already! She isn't worth it."

Hiroyuki felt his face hardening. "You take that back," he snapped. "How dare a Crimson Knight like you speak that way about your leader?" Kouta was about to shout back something when Hiroyuki rode right over him, his voice growing louder and louder by every word, "I won't stand here and hear you calling Lady Subaru names, got it? Now get out of here!"

In front of the circulation desk Shimatani Kouta stood, face a thunderhead, eyes going as wide as they could in anger, clenched fist trembling at his sides. Then he spun on his heel and stormed out of the store, leaving behind his umbrella. Hiroyuki sighed. The other man was always short-tempered. He'd cool down in time, though. Maybe the cold of the rain would help quicken that process. He was sure that when he saw Kouta tomorrow, the man would already have forgotten about what just happened, though.

"I'm sorry you had to see this, Miss. I apologize..." he said as he turned toward his customer. He stopped talking, however, when his eyes fell on her face and saw that she was smiling the way someone did when they had uncovered a secret.

"You're Silver Knight!" she exclaimed... and he gave a start. How the heck did she guess?

As if she were able to read his mind, she grinned and said, "You worked in a movie rental store. You addressed Subaru as "Lady". And that man called you Captain! Isn't it obvious?"

"Do I know you?" Hiroyuki peered at the teenager. "In The World, I mean."

"Yes you do, now guess who I am." She gave him a mischievous smile.

Hiroyuki decided to study the girl more carefully while going over what she had said in his head. Then it struck him.

"You're Mimiru," he said. She was the only person in The World to whom he divulged the information about him working part-time for a movie rental store. It had to be her. "But you're... so young. I thought you had to be at least eighteen."

"And you're so old," Mimiru retaliated. "I already knew that you had to be an old man from the way you talked and acted in The World but I didn't imagine that you were already twenty-three!"

Hiroyuki cleared his throat and offered no comment to that. Twenty-three was _old?_

"What's your name?" she asked. "I can't keep calling you Silver Knight or grumpy old man, can I?"

"Are kids nowadays as rude as you?" He frowned at her. "Shouldn't you be introducing yourself to your elder first?"

"Fine." She stuck her tongue out at him. "I'm Kanae, Mitsuki Kanae. Nice to meet'cha." She extended her hand to him. He took it and gave it a firm shake.

"My name's Kozuka Hiroyuki," he said. "Glad to make your acquaintance."

"So now that we were properly introduced, let me ask you a question."

"Ask."

"Do I get a discount?"

"No," he answered immediately.

"Cheapskate," Kanae declared, and they started to laugh together. She was an interesting girl, Hiroyuki decided. And if the rumors he had heard were true, she should be chummy with the Lady Subaru herself. Maybe he could ask the girl about his former leader. It had been a while since he last heard about her, after all.

* * *

Standing by the whiteboard of the room three-oh-eight of Touyou Eiwa Jogakuin, Rikudou Emi tossed a glance over her shoulder as her hand continued to use a piece of square cloth to wipe out the remaining of what was written on the board. Beyond the glass windows, the sun was traveling toward the horizon, its light dyeing every desk and chair in the classroom with its sickly orange light. In the approaching twilight, Shouji An, a tall girl with soft brown hair and a pair of bright eyes of the color of amber, sat on her chair with her elbows on her desk like a lifeless stature. Her face, which was as blank as a sheet of paper often enough, was now covered by an aura of melancholy. Emi couldn't help but wonder what the black sheep of the class was thinking in that head of hers.

Since starting her first grade in this school, Emi had been assuming the post of class representative. Yet, during the last ten years of her life, she had never encountered someone nearly as troublesome as the ever-so-aloof Shouji An in her class. Well, not troublesome in the sense that Shouji was a nuisance to other people around her – she never was – but in that the girl made Emi's job infinitely difficult to carry out. She was the class rep, who was implored upon by the homeroom teacher to ensure that the students get along as well as family members would, so it was only natural that she tried to pull Shouji into the lukewarm and friendly atmosphere that she had spent ten years to create and maintain. The brown-haired girl, one year older than every other person in the tenth grade, elected not to. Emi wasn't pleased in the very least.

Every time Shouji An stepped into the class, she immediately walked to her seat in the very last row and began to stare out of the glass window to her right without sparing any of her classmates a smile, a good morning greeting, or even a quickest glance. Shouji wasn't snobbish or anything, that Emi could tell, she was simply uninterested in other people or whatever they did around her seat. Although she did respond when other students approached her – the girls who were Shouji's neighbors wanted to make friends with her, Emi supposed – she did so in a manner that encouraged people to stay the heck away from her. It wasn't that she was rude – nor was she polite, in any case – the way she answered people's questions let them know exactly that they should stop bothering her and let her be by herself. Her classmates got the message almost instantly.

Emi _tsk'ed_ in irritation as she recalled the first conversation she had with Shouji An, which happened during the lunch break of the first day she transferred into the class. All Emi had wanted to do was letting Shouji know that although she was new and that everybody else in the class knew each other – they had actually been friends since the first grade, thanks to the escalator system – she shouldn't hesitate in making friends. Emi had said so as warmly and affably as she could, which usually helped her break the ice successfully, so she was shocked when she was met with a blank stare in the end and a curt "Thank you" before Shouji turned away and resuming her prior activity, which involved staring at the clouds through the window.

Of course, being the kind class representative that Emi was, she didn't become angry. Instead, she tried to talk to her unresponsive classmate again and tried her best to learn more about the girl by asking questions involving her family. Five minutes after she started, Shouji An stood up and walked out of the class. Another five minutes passed before Emi realized that her target had settled herself down on the ground beneath a tree in the school yard, her arms hugging her knees, her eyes gazing once more upward at the sky. Only after the school bell rang did the girl return to class. Emi found herself thinking that Shouji An was a challenge that she could not, and must not, fail to overcome.

With that incident – Emi sometimes referred to it as a Public Relations disaster – in mind, she had assumed that it would be impossible to ask Shouji An to join a club, which was required by the school. At first, Shouji reacted the way Emi thought she would when the girl was informed about the school's regulation, which meant that she gave Emi a bland look before she muttered a half-hearted "Thank you" and stared out of her window again. Then just as Emi was about to leave, Shouji suddenly asked in a drop-dead serious voice whether Touyou Eiwa Jogakuin had a movie club. That surprised her so greatly she spent a good two minutes gaping at Shouji An like a country lout before she gave the latter the directions to the club.

Now here was the oddest thing that had ever happened in Touyou Eiwa as far back as Emi could remember. Since she was terribly curious about Shouji An, she dropped by the movie club a few times to see how the girl was doing. She was shocked the moment she realized that despite Shouji's unresponsiveness, the girl was fawned on by nearly every member of the club. When she carefully made an inquiry into the matter, a sempai answered her that they couldn't help but wanting to spoil the girl because it had been a while since they managed to recruit a talent like the freshman... and that they thought Shouji was the cutest thing in the world. Emi simply couldn't understand what was wrong with that crazy club anymore.

Snapping out of her recollection of the past, Emi sighed and finished cleaning up the whiteboard. She was about to go pick up her bag and leave the moment the classroom's door slid open and admitted someone in a getup she never expected to see in Touyou Eiwa. It was a young woman in her mid-twenties, about five feet six in height, with short hair that fell in ringlets in front of her forehead and on either side of her face, which Emi judged to be not quite pretty but not exactly unattractive either. Standing in grave black business attire and wearing a gram face that brooked no nonsense, the newcomer was the very picture of propriety and strength of will. Yet, when Emi looked into the woman's eyes, gray augers that seemed more than able to bore through the hardest material, she knew that this kind of person would do anything as long as it gained her the desired result. Emi shivered.

"Excuse me," said the woman, "may I speak to Shouji-san, please?"

"Oh," Emi swallowed audibly, "she's over there."

"Thank you." The woman gave a small incline of her head, to which Emi returned a deeper one of her own. When she straightened up again, the woman was already walking toward Shouji An, who was studying the newcomer with a frown on her face.

"Hello," said the woman upon arriving at Shouji's desk. "My name is Minamoto Iriya, and I have come on behalf of CyberConnect Corporation. Say, Shouji-san, would you like to go for something to drink? I have an offer that you may just be interested in."

The frown on the brown-haired girl's face deepened while Minamoto Iriya's lips curved upward into a smile Emi could only call... vicious. She wondered if she should find the nearest teacher and report this incident to them.

* * *

Sitting at a table right next to the glass storefront of Hayamu's Coffee House, which was actually more of a bakery shop than what it was named for, Shouji An silently studied the austere facial features of the woman who sat opposite her. As ever, every table of the shop, atop which sat dishfuls of delicious sweet cakes and cups of billowing tea, was occupied. As far as An could remember, there hadn't been a day in which the establishment of Okada Hayamu-san, the gray-haired elderly gentleman who was the House's owner, wasn't crowded. Even now, there was still a long line of people who were waiting outside the door, waiting anxiously for the moment they could step in and relax themselves with Okada-san's homemade cakes and homebrew coffee and tea. Yet, even in the din that encompassed the entire shop, amidst the loud chattering of the female students of Touyou Eiwa Jogakuin who hung out here after class every afternoon without caring about the amount of sugar they were accumulating into their bodies, An had the impression that a bubble of silence surrounded her and her companion, who exuded a very disquieting atmosphere at times. Many thought An naïve, but she had no difficulty identifying Minamoto Iriya as someone utterly dangerous. As for what someone like the young woman could have wanted with a high school student, An didn't know.

She intended to find out, though.

"You called me out here," she said in a cool voice to Minamoto, who had been staring at her with an interested expression on her face since the start, "shouldn't you be talking?"

"Ah, yes, indeed so," answered the woman. "Shouji-san, it is my understanding that you had spent a long period of time in a hospital more than two months ago, correct? In a vegetative state, I believe?"

"Right." An gave a curt nod.

The more she listened to Minamoto Iriya, who introduced herself as the director of the Public Relations Department of CC Corp, the more uncomfortable she grew. Perhaps it was a very wrong decision to have let her curiosity win over common sense and drag her out here with the woman. She should have been back in her room, packing up her belongings so that she'd be ready when dad came and picked her up, so that she could spend her Saturday and Sunday at home, where she could stay near her beloved girlfriend... _'Before she flies away to _ _America__ and leaves me here alone,'_ she thought in deep sadness. An wondered if it was already too late to walk out of the door of the shop and pretend that Minamoto never approached her...

"Are you aware of the cause?" the woman asked before she quietly took a sip from her coffee cup.

"Yes," replied An. "What's so important about it that you had to seek me out?"

"Why, everything!" Minamoto made it sound the most obvious thing in the world. "Do you not see, Shouji-san? The fact that your consciousness," faster than An could react, the older woman raised her hand and pressed her forefinger against An's forehead, "can leave your body and enter the imaginary space created by a network of computers is something incredible!" An brushed away almost roughly the hand of the self-proclaimed director of the Public Relations Department. She hated being touched by people she barely knew. "My apologies." Minamoto inclined her head. If she was offended, she hid it well.

"What exactly do you want with me?"

"What _we_ at CyberConnect wish to _discuss_ with you," she said, "is a job offer. Shouji-san, would you like to work for us as a test subject for out newest Virtual Reality System? We have high hopes for it, as we expect it to be the key factor in revolutionizing The World and the Cyber world itself." The woman's gray eyes, cold as winter stone from the moment she approached An in her class, suddenly glowed with a mix of excitement and reverence. From a distance, anybody would have guessed that Minamoto was a devout Christian who was raving about her Almighty God. "Would it not be incredible if we succeeded in safely transferring people's consciousness into the game? Would it not be a joy for true gamers to experience the game world the way they do the _real_ world?"

"Why me?" An asked curtly. "There are millions of people in Tokyo alone. Why do you want _me_?"

"We have been trying with others before we decided that we should approach you, Shouji-san," Minamoto Iriya said patiently. "Our experiments, however, proved to be unfruitful. No matter what we did, the system rejected our subjects the very same way magnets of the same pole repelled each other. It was only then did we think of you." The woman's eyes sparkled with a light that sent shivers slithering down An's spine. "You were the first person to fall under the influence of that renegade A.I. Morgana. You were the one whose consciousness spent the longest period of time in The World. If our conjecture was indeed correct, the system should welcome you with open arms." She spread her hands and smiled. "So, what say you, Shouji-san?"

"I refuse," An said flatly. "I have better things to do than being your lab rat." She rose to her feet.

"Don't leave yet." The smile on Minamoto's lips deepened. "We have not even talked about the benefits of working for us yet." She reached inside her suit pocket and brought out a folded piece of paper, which she straightened out upon the table top. "This is the contract. Why don't you read it and see for yourself what we can offer in exchange for your cooperation?"

"Not interested, so no thanks." An picked up her schoolbag and started for the exit of the Coffee House.

"How is Lady Subaru of the Crimson Knights doing lately?" Minamoto Iriya's voice spoke softly behind An and made her stop abruptly in her track. "We at CyberConnect were truly sorry to see the Knights disbanded, you see," the young woman continued while An stared at her. "We have always been indebted to her; for without her and her Knights, The World would have been a place where lawlessness thrived while we could do nothing to stop it." Gray eyes now focused on An, strong as a snow avalanche, sharper than a butcher's knife. For some reason, those eyes infuriated An no end.

"Why did you mention her?" she asked in her coldest voice.

"Because I believe this modest offer will benefit both you _and_ her, of course. Say, Shouji-san, is it true that Lady Subaru is going to the United States for her treatment?" the woman said, her smile unwavering atop her interlaced hands.

"How do you know that?" An felt her fists clenching and her internal organs turning to ice.

"We always do our homework; that is why. Why don't you sit down? We at CyberConnect have spent much time and effort trying to devise a contract that would delight you. At least read it, please? Else, we may have to resort to appealing to the Lady Subaru herself." The threat, however disguised by polite and honeyed words, was plain. Unless An did what they wanted, Mariko would be endangered. For the first time ever since she walked into this coffee shop, An realized that she had been caught in a trap that had no easy way out.

* * *

Worried and slightly angry, Sakuma Ryo roughly pushed open the doors to Hayamu's Coffee House and scanned the interior for his adopted daughter. When he spotted the girl, his breath caught immediately. Shouji An, sitting at a table by the transparent large glass panel that served as the storefront, opposite a woman in grave business attire, was holding in her hand the personal seal that was required for any legal documents. And she was about to press the seal upon a piece of paper lying atop the table while the older woman smiled at her in great satisfaction.

"Hold it, An!" he roared and ended up making nearly everybody else in the shop jump off their seats, including An and her companion. Shocked by Ryo's voice, the brown-haired girl let go of the seal in her hand and let it fall all the way to the carpeted floor of the shop. The woman in business suit, whose nerves must have been made from steel the way she was unfazed by the commotion that he caused, looked up calmly at him. Yet, in those gray eyes of her hid a light that spoke volumes of hatred. She seemed a tigress whose prey had just been stolen and was determined to reclaim it. Ryo decided immediately that this woman was dangerous.

Being fully aware that every eye there was in the shop was glued at him, Ryo walked to An's table, where he stood and stared down at the woman with his coldest face. Perhaps she realized that having a man looming over her like this made her look feeble, she rose to her feet and returned a stare that was no less challenging.

"You must be the lady from CC Corp. I've heard about," Ryo said coolly. "My name's Sakuma Ryo, An's guardian. Pleased to meet you." He extended his hand to the woman, who grabbed it and shook it as firmly as any other man would. She looked puny... but she sure was strong.

"I am Minamoto Iriya," she said, her hand letting go of Ryo's. "It is my pleasure." The shadow of a raging blizzard never disappeared from her gray eyes. Minamoto must be secretly steaming inside, he guessed.

He glanced at his adopted daughter, who was sitting very still on her seat, face painted with surprise and puzzlement. Sighing, he bent down to pick up her personal seal and slipped it back into her hand. The girl never said a word even as he pulled her up gently by the wrist and said quietly, "Let's go back to your room, An. Mariko's waiting there, and she's very worried about you." The name of An's girlfriend brought a guilty grimace to the high school's freshman's face. Ryo wondered why.

"I'm sorry I interrupted your _meeting_," he glanced at the woman from CC Corp, "but we have an urgent matter to attend to. Perhaps we can schedule an appointment on another day for the _three_ of us?"

"Certainly," Minamoto Iriya said as she folded the piece of paper on the desk, put it inside her suit pocket, and gave An and Ryo an incline of her head. "Good day." She then walked to the cashier counter, gave the elderly lady over there a few bills, and left.

"Shall we go?" he quietly told the brown-haired girl. She nodded.

"Why is Mariko here, dad?" An asked, her voice slightly anxious, when they were crossing the school yard a few minutes later. "And... how did you find me?"

"Mariko asked me to let her tag along when I came to pick you up like usual," Ryo replied. "Saying that she was worried is an understatement. It would appear you haven't been calling her, _again_." He gave his daughter a glance, which made her turn her head sideways in guilt. "On the way here, I received a call from my old friend the Headmistress of Touyou Eiwa. Thanks to your vigilant class representative, she learned that someone suspicious from CyberConnect had approached you. After taking that phone call, I left Mariko in your room went to look for you. As to how I found you... have you forgotten, An? Your mobile has a GPS tracking device." Ryo gestured at her school bag, in which he knew her cell phone had to be.

"Ah, right," the brown-haired girl murmured noncommittally.

A few minutes passed in silence between them before they reached An's room in the dorm.

"An," Misono Mariko, sitting on her wheelchair near the bed, called softly as soon as Ryo opened the door and ushered in the high school fresh man, who seemed as though she wanted to be on a different planet. Mariko noticed this, for the young woman's face paled a little bit. "An, did something happen?"

Not answering her girlfriend's question, An stood stiffly by the door and took up a serious study of the floor. Exasperated, Mariko turned her gaze toward Ryo and looked at him pleadingly. Sighing, Ryo sat down on the bed and raked his fingers through his hair, not knowing how he should begin. Silence, terribly uncomfortable silence, weighed on his shoulders like a boulder of rock until he could stand it no more.

"An, would you tell me what the woman from CC Corp wanted from you?" he suggested. "Please?" Not that he didn't know... but he had better confirm it first.

Another few minutes passed before An decided to speak up. In a strained voice, the brown-haired girl gave them the details of their meeting. She stopped abruptly, however, upon reaching the part about her reading the contract and refused to speak more. He noticed her reluctance. He would have inquired further, too, had something in An's story not struck him like a full-arm slap. Anger rose in him.

"So she threatened you with Mariko, didn't she?" Ryo's voice was soft and low, but inside his veins coursed torrential currents of molten lava. He was born mild-natured, but this was just plain outrageous! "I'll call the authorities soon."

"Oh An..." Mariko wheeled herself forward and stopped in front of her young girlfriend. There, she took the hands of the high school freshman into hers and squeezed them affectionately.

"An, next you see that woman, don't ever let her get near you. She meant you no good," Ryo said. "In fact, that job offer from CC Corp could have been the most dangerous trap you could possibly land yourself into."

"What do you mean, Ryo-san?" Mariko asked. An, on the other hand, only gave him a puzzled look.

"I'm sure you both remember Helba," he answered and continued after An and Mariko had nodded, "that wise lady has been keeping a tight watch on both The World and CC Corp even after Morgana's defeat. When I was in the game yesterday, I received a message from her, which requested my presence at a meeting in a hidden Field. When I arrived, I saw her, Balmung, and Lios."

Pausing to take a breath, Ryo silently watched as the girls' eyes widened in surprise at the names he had mentioned. They both knew that Lios was the CC Corp. Administrator who had sided with the dotHackers in the war against Morgana and her Phases. Furthermore, they were also aware that Balmung of the Azure Sky had been made Administrator of the game. The fact that the famous hacker Helba and two Administrators summoned him to a secret meeting should be a sign that something terrible was going on.

"Lord Balmung was there, too?" Mariko said quietly, almost a musing, as a frown formed on her pretty face.

"Balmung said that he would have called you too, Mariko, had he not realized that he didn't want to drag you into the mess ever again."

"He's always so kind," the paraplegic young woman murmured in gratitude. Ryo nodded to himself. Of course, Balmung of the Azure Sky had always been protective over Mariko. In a way, he was like a father to her, who watched over her in the shadows, who silently ensured that no harm would fall her way. A good man, that was what Balmung was.

"Anyways," Ryo cleared his throat and decided to get back to the important matter at hand, "in the meeting, Helba, Balmung, and Lios informed me of a danger lurking in the shadows of CC Corp. You see, since the company learned of the existence of Aura, Morgana, and what happened to An in The World, a faction within the personnel has been formed. The members of that faction, called the Revolutionists reverently by some and mockingly by others, advocated idea which was fed to you by the woman Minamoto Iriya, An. A perfect Virtual Reality where the player's consciousness is immersed in the game so that they can experience the true sensations they would normally feel in the real world.

"At first, when the idea was first voiced, it gained enormous support from the leaders. However, once they took a careful inspection over the design that the Revolutionists wished to implement on the current systems, they found out a detrimental flaw. The design, despite its brilliance and intricacy, would place an immense stress upon the player's mind, which was more than capable of sending him or her into a coma... or shut it down forever. Apparently, some researchers with too much time on their hands have been studying the remnants of Morgana's data."

An and Mariko stared at Ryo in shock.

"As a result, the big shots in CC Corp. decided to put the idea on a back burner until the flaw in the design was fixed. They refuse to grant budget to the researchers, too," he continued. "The Revolutionists weren't pleased with that. They argued that without being given priority and budget to continue their result, how could they overcome the problem? Since the higher-ups would hear none of it, the Revolutionists could only fume in silence... until they decided that they would take the matter into their own hands. Determined, they set out to look for test subjects, which had _never_ been authorized." His lips thinned in anger. "Thanks to those Revolutionists, five adults have been sent to hospital, all of whom were in a short comma before gaining consciousness in special recuperation rooms. Worse, they hadn't been able to twitch a muscle ever since, as their brain cells were heavily damaged. _That_ could have happened to you, An," he declared firmly, trying to drive his point home.

Mariko's hand rose to cover her mouth in horror, her eyes as wide as they could be, while Ryo's adopted daughter's complexion went so pale one could have thought that all the blood had been withdrawn from her face. Her hands, which were hanging very still at her side since the beginning of the conversation, started to tremble. Ryo believed he had just succeeded in slamming fear back into her mind.

"Afterwards, the Revolutionists, fearful of the consequences, threatened the families of the victims that unless they kept quiet, they would be killed," Ryo said. "That was how they managed to keep their CC Corp. superiors in the dark. Fortunately, however, Helba found out about the incident and immediately notified Balmung and Lios. Those three would have exposed the shady business to the executive personnel at CC Corp., I believe, had it not been for the fact that Helba deeply mistrusts them, that Lios and Balmung's positions weren't very high, and that they possess no evidence at all. Balmung and Lios promised to investigate further into the matter, though."

"Why did they contact you of all people, Ryo-san?" Mariko asked, her voice a tad breathless.

"Because they had cause to believe that the Revolutionists would come after An, seeing how much she was connected to Morgana and The World," Ryo replied and gave his daughter a glance. She shied back as though his eyes were bullets "And I see that they were correct. An," the brown-haired girl gave a start at the mentioning of her name and looked up at him in apprehension, "now will you tell me why you decided to print your seal on that contract?" Having heard the question, the high school freshman eyed the door to her room and appeared as though she wanted to break it down so she could escape.

"An, did they threaten you again?" Mariko supplied.

An shook her head and said slowly, "No, I was trying to sign that contract because I wanted to."

"Why do you _want_ to?" Ryo demanded, frowning.

An swallowed audibly and turned her sideways, lips thinned, blue eyes boring a hole through a wall standing opposite. She obviously didn't want to answer. Ryo was about to pressure her to spill the reason why she would do something that, based on her personality and her unease toward CC Corp., would not do under normal circumstances when Mariko said in a soft, pleading voice, "An, please, talk to us." Then the girl turned around.

"They... promised me fifty million yen in exchange for my cooperation," the brown-haired girl said in a quiet and ashamed voice. "They said... it'd be enough to fund my stay in the United States during the one year Mariko's hospitalized." After she finished, she stood there and trembled as though she had just been tossed into a winter pond.

Deafening silence once again descended in the room and engulfed the three of them. Ryo was so shocked that he couldn't find a word to say while Mariko stared at her lover, her amber eyes shining with unshed tears. An, on the other hand, never stopped trembling. She seemed on the verge of tears, too. Seeing her like that, Ryo could only blame himself and his uselessness. He only wished that he had more money. He only wished his financial situation hadn't deteriorated so much lately that he didn't have the power to make his daughter happy. Sure, outwardly the novelist Sakuma Ryo was wealthy but he and his daughter knew better than that. Unless his novel, which was still in writing, was successful, they would run into a financial crisis soon enough.

"Come here, An," Mariko said softly and tugged at An's hand with her own. At first, the high school freshman refused to move but when she looked at the young woman's face, she gave in and got down on her knees in front of the wheelchair. "You must have suffered a great deal during the last week. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, An."

"No, don't apologize!" An gave a start. "I'm the one at fault. I shouldn't be so selfish I made you worry. I'm the one who should say sorry. I should have been overjoyed just to know that you have a chance of being cured. I... I..."

"You don't have to say anything. There's nothing you should be sorry for." Mariko hushed her young girlfriend by pulling the latter into a tight hug. In Mariko's embrace, Ryo's daughter started to cry. Knowing he shouldn't stay anymore, he hastily opened the door stepped out of the room. Yet, quick as he was, he wasn't quick enough to close the door in time so he wouldn't hear a quiet _"I love you, An,"_ issued from Mariko's mouth. His fists clenched as he leaned his back against the door. Any other person perhaps could undergo a year without her love by her side... but he doubted An could without sinking deeper and deeper into depression first. In that instant, he decided that by any means, he would gather enough money so that he could send An to the U.S. with Mariko, no matter what he had to do to achieve his goal.

* * *

Under the camouflage of the night and the shadow of a tall building, Minamoto Iriya quietly observed the two-story house that was the home to Sakuma Ryo and his adopted daughter, Shouji An. The two of them had come back here a while ago, accompanied by a young woman on a wheelchair that could be no one else but the Lady Subaru, Misono Mariko. Iriya gave her lips a thoughtful tap. From the look on their faces, painted with a touch of sadness and frustration, she didn't think that she should contact Shouji An ever again. The answer became obvious to her the moment Sakuma Ryo stormed into that coffee shop and prevented his daughter from signing that fake contract. Well, of course it was fake, if the Revolutionists possessed fifty million yen, they would be performing extensive researches on the Morpheus System right now, not dispatching Minamoto Iriya and her comrades around the country to abduct test subjects.

Iriya sighed. It was so close. Had Sakuma Ryo been a minute later, maybe even thirty seconds, Shouji An would have become a pawn in her hand, which she could move on the chessboard to her heart's content. Now... Iriya suspected that the moment she stepped near the girl was also the moment her face was covered with the content of a pepper spray. _If_ Iriya managed to get near the girl, of course...

Well... she guessed she needed to initiate Plan B now. Shouji An was a test subject that she could not afford letting go. By hook or by crook, Iriya would bring the girl to the Revolutionists' secret research center... The revolution of virtual reality was at hand, she and her fellow members only needed to try a little harder. When Shouji An finished helping them perfect the Morpheus System, the big shots in CyberConnect would open their eyes and recognize the System for what it was worth. The world would kneel at their feet then.

Taking out her Palm Pilot, Iriya quickly punched the dials and pressed it against her ear. In but a few seconds, the dull ringing sounds were replaced by the voice of one of her comrades.

"Headquarters," she said softly, "Plan A has failed. Requesting permission to start Plan B."

Silence passed for the next few minutes before a man's deep voice answered her, "Permission granted."

"My thanks, friend," was what Iriya murmured before she hung up. Using her pen, she browsed the contact list on her phone until she found the address of the man with whom she needed to get in touch.

" 1579 Meiji Avenue, Beika City," she murmured as she walked away from the Sakuma residence, "Shouji Ichitaka." If there was someone who could deliver Shouji An into her hand, it would be her rotten scum of a biological father. Iriya couldn't help but chuckle softly to herself. This world was truly a joke...

* * *


	3. Your heart, where I belong

_

* * *

.hack/SIGN: WHERE I BELONG_

_Chapter three: Your heart, where I belong  
_

* * *

In his run-down apartment, on a floor littered by cigarette butts and empty beer bottles, beneath a window the glass of which was stained by smoke and the dust that accrued after months of neglect, Shouji Ichitaka sat, his eyes glued at the dark ceiling, his head a mess of fear and desperation. Life had been cruel toward him during the last two days, as his electricity, gas, and water service had been cut off due to the fact that he had no money to pay the bills. Yet, bad as the situation was, the worst had yet to come. A couple of days from now, the landlord would come to collect this month's rent... and unless Ichitaka found money in time, he was going to be kicked out of here. Once that happened, Ichitaka would have to spend his nights on some bench in the park, homeless, friendless, jobless, penniless, and without a chance of regaining what he once had. He shuddered. Oh Gods above, why did they land him into this predicament?

Despair turned into anger. Yes, all of this was his Gods-damned daughter's doings. It was the girl's bad luck that killed his wife. It was the evil who had accompanied her since birth that led to the downfall of his business career. When Shouji An fell into a coma and ended up in a vegetative state, Ichitaka had thought in glee that he could finally get rid of the disease that had plagued the last seventeen years of his life. Every day he prayed to the Gods that the girl would kick the bucket, every day he hoped to receive a phone call from the hospital which would inform him that his source of misfortune no longer troubled him... and every day he was disappointed. Apparently An refused to draw her last breath even though she was almost as dead as a corpse. Not knowing how long he was going to have to pay the hospital to preserve his daughter's life, which he never wanted them to, he had tried to pressure the girl's assigned doctor into pulling the plug of her life-support machine. That chicken of a physician, however, refused to, so Ichitaka was infuriated no end.

One day, he decided that he could wait no more, that he had to take matters into his own hands, so he sneaked into his daughter's room in the hospital. There, he shut down the life-support machine and watched in cold satisfaction as An's pulse started to weaken. He was so close to success, so close, when the doctor stepped into the room and discovered that Ichitaka was trying to kill his patient. Of course, since Ichitaka was outnumbered, he could do nothing except from watching the SVR-865X Unit coming back to life, An's pulse becoming stabilized, and his hope being washed down the drain. Well, despite the fact that he was stared at disgustedly by the doctor and nurses at the hospital, he wasn't tossed into prison for his attempt of vandalism and threatening a patient's life, so he guessed Lady Luck still favored him somewhat.

His real trouble, as if he hadn't had enough of it, started, ironically, when Shouji An woke up from her coma. On that very morning, he waited at home for the girl, knowing that the moment she stepped one step past the door would also be the moment he grabbed her hair, like he always did, and beat her with all his might. That afternoon, he considered the idea of murder, for he didn't believe he could tolerate the girl's repulsive existence anymore. By the time the evening descended upon the sky of Tokyo, he had already figured how to dispose of his daughter's corpse without arousing any suspicion from the neighbors or the police. Oh how he had been disappointed when he opened the door four days later to see that it wasn't the abomination who had rung the bell, but a bear of a man who was accompanied by a lawyer in grave black suit. It was the instant that he felt as if he had just put his head into a noose.

That man introduced himself as Sakuma Ryo and announced he had taken all legal actions necessary to _"deliver An out of the hell hole"_ that was Ichitaka's beloved home. Taken aback, he could only stare as the lawyer, a woman who looked at him the way one would filth, presented him with the paperwork that clearly showed that he no longer had the power to affect his daughter's life. Not just that, according to the last sheaf of paper in the darn woman's folder, the Superior Court of Tokyo had also issued a restraint order, which forbade him to approach Shouji An under any and all circumstances. Apparently, Sakuma had brought An to the police and let her testified that she had been subjected to both verbal and physical abuse by Ichitaka. How his jaw had dropped knowing that had the girl pressed charge against him, he would have been in deep yogurt.

After Sakuma and his lawyer left, Ichitaka sat back down on his couch and became so happy that had he not tried his best not to dance around the apartment, he would have. For the first time ever, he felt as though a mountain had been lifted from his shoulders. _'Finally, my misfortune has left me for good,'_ he had thought on that day and gone ahead to buy a cask of beer just so he could celebrate his daughter's departure from his life. He had not slept so well since the day his wife gave birth to the brat.

Eventually, he realized that even though Shouji An was no longer nearby, her bad luck was still there, haunting him as tenaciously as ever. For some reason, his neighbors, whom he was on good terms with, had managed to listen in on the conversation between him and Sakuma Ryo, inevitably learning of the fact that he had been punishing his daughter in his own home. As a result, they ostracized him and treated him with contempt even though he believed that what he did to Shouji An was but just. Well, he didn't care so much about those good-for-nothing slobs anyways, so he ignored them and went on with his daily life. Never once did he imagine that the incident would get blown up beyond his control. Never once did he expect to find a reporter at his door one Saturday afternoon, wanting to interview him. Of course, Ichitaka slammed the door on the fellow's face immediately.

It was a bad idea.

The next morning, as soon as he picked up the newspaper, he saw a picture of himself on the front page. He didn't know whether the reporter was just enraged by Ichitaka's action or the guy was determined to become famous at Ichitaka's expense... but the damnable man had clearly done his best to smear Ichitaka's reputation. Aided by his _helpful_ neighbors, the reporter managed to sprinkle a few specks of truth onto his article... yet the rest were ill-willed lies. True, he admitted that he once beat up An so badly that he had to keep her from going to school for fear someone would notice the bruises. True, he often showered the girl with all sorts of profanity with the intention of forcing her to learn just exactly how she had affected his once perfect life. True, he even tried to kill her by disabling her life-support system... but for crying out loud, he never applied medieval torture devices on her, nor did he starve her for such a long period of time that the girl ended up in the hospital for weeks. It was an article more vicious than anything he had had the chance to read in his life.

The trouble didn't end there.

When Ichitaka came to work a couple of days later, he was summoned to the office of the chairman, who told him flatly that he had been fired. It turned out that the higher-ups in the company had heard about the incident and decided that they needed to get rid of him as soon as possible. Since they were about to launch an advertisement campaign that was supposed to raise their popularity with the public, they couldn't afford anything that might taint the company's name. That was the simple reason to Ichitaka's downfall. On that day, he left a company where he thought he would work and continue to rise until he reigned on top of everybody else.

During the following weeks, Ichitaka sought employment from other eminent companies. Of course, since he had such an awesome résumé, he expected that anyone who had a little bit of sense and intelligence to leap at him and offer him a position no lower than that of his last job. What he faced at the interviews, unexpectedly, were rejection and disgust. The first question they asked him was always related to the article on the newspaper in which he was accused of child abuse. He denied it as fervently as he could, obviously, but no matter how hard he tried, he failed to clear his name. As a result, no company would hire him. After every day that passed afterwards, he sank a little bit closer toward hell.

_'And I must be at its door right now,'_ he thought bitterly. He only wondered when it would open and let hell suck him in.

Just as Ichitaka was about to wallow himself deeper and deeper in self-pity and hatred for the ungrateful world, someone knocked on the door and made him give a violent start. Instinctively, he pressed himself against the wall and began to tremble. The landlord... he couldn't have decided that he wanted to collect this month's rent early now could he? Ichitaka dearly wished that it wasn't the cold-blooded, money-loving old man... but aside from him, who would come to this Gods-forsaken apartment to look for Ichitaka? His so-called friends had deserted him since his fall from grace and pretended that they didn't know him even if they saw him on the streets. Even solicitors refused to knock on the door of his apartment, which was called a hell hole by Sakuma Ryo and Ichitaka's neighbors, so the landlord was the only one who would possibly...

"Shouji Ichitaka-san," a woman's voice, soft, melodious, and icy, called and cut off his train of thoughts, "I know you are in there. Please open up." Chills slithered down his spine. How the heck did the she know?

"Who the hell are you?" he shouted and heard the fear in his voice. Once, he was a man who knew of no such thing. Once, he was a man confident that he was but invincible. Now, he didn't think so anymore. "What do you want?" The fear grew stronger.

"My name is Minamoto Iriya," came the reply. "I am the Director of the Public Relations Department of CyberConnect Corporation. I am here today to offer a contract with my company to a talented man like you. Do you not _want_ it, Shouji-san?" Somehow, he was under the impression that the woman outside his door was smiling.

Ichitaka's breath caught. Everybody knew that CyberConnect was the most powerful of the corporations in the world. If Minamoto Iriya was telling the truth... then he had a chance to rise from the mud and regain what he lost and more! He was about to leap up from where he sat and open the door when suddenly suspicion struck him. What could CC Corp possibly want with a man whose reputation had been stained forever, whose life had been reduced to this helpless state? If they truly wanted talented people, they could have recruited a truckload of Toudai graduates any time they wanted. The fact that they came here for Ichitaka meant that something fishy was going on. Furthermore, he couldn't exclude the possibility that the woman wasn't what she claimed to be. He was desperate, but he wasn't a fool.

As if Minamoto could tell what he was thinking, she said in an amused tone, "If you keep being so cautious, Shouji-san, how could I show you the contract? A look would not hurt now would it? Or are you afraid that a frail woman like me would hurt you?" The mocking note in the woman's voice was so loud, so obvious that it made Ichitaka's blood boil.

Deciding that he had nothing to lose, he rose to his feet and opened the door, at which point he realized that his visitor was a handsome woman in formal black suit who was young enough to be his daughter, whose hand was holding a bag that seemed almost too heavy for such a small woman to pickup. His face hardened. How could someone with so few years on her have been able to climb to such a high position in CyberConnect unless she was lying about it?

"Pleased to meet you, Shouji-san," Minamoto said with an incline of her head.

"Come in," Ichitaka commanded roughly. The Gods knew he should have slammed the door on the woman's face the way he did the nosy reporter a couple of months back... but some part of him desperately wanted to believe the woman's claim, so he only clutched the door handle and waited until she had stepped inside before he closed it.

"Charming place," she commented casually and sat down on the ground in a prim seiza fashion. His mouth thinned in anger. Was she mocking him again?

Still, he got to admit that the woman was regal. Even with the empty bottles and burnt cigarette butts around her, she still made this dump seem a palace.

"Show me the papers," Ichitaka growled after he had settled down opposite her.

"Here you go, sir." She smiled a very icy smile as she opened the bag, took out several sheets of papers, and laid them neatly upon the tatami mat.

Ichitaka picked them up and studied them carefully, as expected from a professional businessman. He, more than anyone else, was well aware that unless he paid every scrap of his attention and pondered the meaning behind every single line of the contract, he risked being taken advantage of for the rest of his life.

After a few minutes of reading, he gasped aloud. According to the contract, he was to assume the position of Marketing Director of the Tokyo Division of CyberConnect Corporation. Along with the position also came the annual salary of fifty million yen, four weeks of vacation a year, and other benefits that his old company couldn't afford paying for. All in all, it was a contract made of pure gold, one that any person who sought employment would kill to have.

"This is... too good to be true," Ichitaka mumbled.

"As I said," Minamoto Iriya said with a satisfied smile, "you are a talented man. We are always in dire need of people like you."

"People like me," he repeated. "You must be kidding. I'm not going to beat around the bush, Minamoto-san. Tell me now, why did you want me for such a high position when you're well aware that I have been pushed down to the lowest level of society. You, a Public Relations Director of all, must have done your research beforehand, right?" He focused his eyes on the handsome face of the woman in black suit. "You know what they said about me. Shouldn't you care?"

"Oh we sure do," she agreed. "However, the value that our company needs is talent. For that, we are willing to turn a blind eye to whatever had happened to our employees as long as they prove... useful to us." She gave him a meaningful glance. "Besides, it is not as if we give you this position freely, Ichitaka-san. There is a price you have to pay before you can start working for us."

"I noticed," Ichitaka said dryly. "The contract specified that unless I fulfilled a certain condition, the position won't be mine." He put down the papers. "What is it that you want me to do?"

"We want you to deliver your daughter, Shouji An, into our hands, by whatever means you can think of." Minamoto smiled viciously. "The day you succeed is also the way we at CyberConnect would welcome you with open arms. Of course, we will also take measures to clear your name. We will give you a life a thousand times better than what you once had."

Ichitaka narrowed his eyes. "An? What business do you have with that girl?"

It was then that Minamoto Iriya started to tell him the true story behind his damned daughter's hospitalization.

* * *

"And that is why we need your daughter, Shouji-san," Minamoto Iriya concluded after half an hour of telling the scum of the society that was the man sitting opposite her. Despite the fact that she had been praising his talent and trivializing his fall from grace since the beginning of the conversation, she did believe that people like him should be executed on the spot. She never liked Shouji An to begin with... but it did not change the fact that she felt for the girl and resented what was done to her during the first seventeen years of her life.

"You are hiding something," the lowlife observed. "Out with it."

"What do you mean?" she asked innocently.

"You conveniently left out the fact that with less than a fraction of what you offered me, you could hire any thug in this city to do your biddings," Shouji Ichitaka said coldly. "Why _me_?"

"Because they are not the girl's father, _you_ are. _You_ know her best," Iriya answered matter-of-factly. "Using you would ensure that we have the highest chance in capturing her. And of course, you being a talented businessman was a fact that we couldn't possibly fail to notice. I can never stress enough that we are always in need of capable employees."

That was the truth... just not all of it. The true reason why the Revolutionists wanted Shouji Ichitaka for the job was that he was the _easiest_ to put the blame on. Paying thugs to kidnap Shouji An would cost a whole lot less, that much was granted, but thugs were always treacherous, and they could be traced back to CyberConnect and mess up everything that was about to come to fruition. This lowlife of a man before her now, on the other hand, was much easier to deal with. He was all by himself, he had no one to reply on, thus he could be quickly eliminated should need arise. And once he was silenced forever, it would be a piece of cake to make sure that the police's investigation would go no further than his death. In the end, he had the perfect motive. Anyone could see that his hatred toward his daughter was what drove him toward whatever actions he might take against her in the future. Even a dummy would be able to deduce that the man's situation was hopeless, that he only wanted to exact revenge from Shouji An before he _ended his own life_. They would never be able to realize that the Revolutionists were behind the scene and pulling the strings on the puppet.

"That's all?" Shouji demanded suspiciously.

"That is all," Iriya agreed.

"Very well," the lowlife said. "I accept the condition. I'll give An to you as soon as I can lay a hand on her. But I'll need her personal information, such as address and cell phone number."

"You will have them." Iriya nodded. Oh how quick he was in deciding, how nonchalant he was in saying that he would hand his blood daughter to them so that the girl could be experimented on, how heartless this man was. Still, she said nothing. Once she had given Shouji what he asked for, she left the building, marveling to herself how amazingly easy it was to deceive a man in a hopeless situation. For all the suspicion that Shouji Ichitaka had tossed at her, she was certain the man never once seriously tried to find out whether Iriya's claim, or even the contract, was valid.

It, obviously, was not.

The contract was merely a piece of paper that had absolutely no legal effect. True, it was written by one of the top members of the Revolutionist, in the careful and precise wording of any contract offered to any new employee, but that did not mean that it was worth more than any other piece of trash that Shouji Ichitaka could pick up on the street. Were the man to bring it to any branch of CyberConnect, they would tell him immediately that he was holding in his hand a piece of forgery, however intricately wrought. But surely, the man was not going to do that, or anything that might destroy his faith. He was desperate. He needed something to believe in. He wanted to be assured that he was going to be alright. No matter whether he was aware of it or not, the lowlife had wagered his life on the possibility that Iriya was telling the truth.

Wrong choice.

Not only would Iriya disabuse the lowlife of his wishful dream once he had accomplished the task, she was also going to kill him. The secret must be protected. They could not very well have him going berserk after learning that he had been deceived and thoroughly taken advantage of, now could they? And besides, it was not as though anybody would grieve for the man's death, least of all his blood daughter. After all, Shouji Ichitaka was the lowest of the low, a man who could not compare to an insect. When someone like him vanished, this world became a little bit better. Not much, of course, but it would still please Iriya greatly to make that happen with her own hands.

* * *

"Wait here a little bit, ne, Mariko. I'll go get some ice cream," An said before she dived into the sea of people milling about the attraction spots of the Tokyo Dome City.

Sitting on her wheelchair near a gushing fountainhead, eyes glued at her lovely girlfriend's retreating back, Misono Mariko couldn't help but wonder in amazement what could have taken over the girl who had cried uncontrollably in Mariko's arms a week ago. An had seemed so depressed and so heartbroken then, so when she showed up at Mariko's door on this glorious Saturday morning and invited Mariko to go out on a _date_ while looking as vibrant as a little bird in spring, Mariko could only gape in surprise. Not in the least did she expect that the high school freshman would answer with such a brilliant smile on her wonderful face that they were going to go to Tokyo Dome City when asked.

Never once after the accident that cost Mariko the ability to walk did she ever imagine that she would be here one day. Why should she, when she knew full well that she was going to be denied the service of most attractions in the amusement park due to her disability? Why should she, when she was aware that her mother, Misono Madoka, feared that Mariko would end up wallowing in self-pity were she to see people do things that she could never do in TDC. Somehow, Madoka never found it in herself to believe that her daughter didn't care much about such things anymore. True, she would inevitably feel a trifle sad having to sit here, on the ground, on her wheelchair, while other visitors had such fun on the Linear Gale rollercoaster or the Tower Hacker, a structure that offered the experience of a two-hundred-and-sixty-feet-freefall, but she was definitely not going to let those negative feelings weigh her down for the rest of her life. An was the sole person who understood that.

As she raised her head to look around for any sight of her sweetheart, Mariko's eyes found her. With the winds caressing her short brown hair, with a healthy color on her full, smooth cheeks, with an ice cream cone in each hand, she looked every inch an angel on earth. Even amidst a sea of people, even when her outfit was but plain – An claimed she was so used to her shirts and short pants that wearing anything else would make her decidedly uncomfortable – while those around her apparently had pulled out their best clothes from the wardrobe, she still shone as brightly as the sun on high.

As Mariko gazed at her girlfriend's approaching figure, she couldn't help but smile. Yes, unlike Madoka, An understood that Mariko had better use of her time than brooding over a fate she couldn't possibly alter. Others might have a hard time believing it... but instead of envying the people around her, she was actually happy for them. Of course, she wasn't as fortunate as they were in that she couldn't walk on her own legs under the vast heavens... but in that she had a girlfriend whom she loved, who loved her more than anyone else in the world.

"Here you go, Mariko," An said with a smile as she gave Mariko the ice cream cone. It had green tea's flavor, her favorite.

"Thanks, An." She returned the smile and watched in blessed silence as her girlfriend sat down on the bench next to the wheelchair and nibbled on her own cone. Yes, all signs of depression and sadness had vanished off the seventeen-year-old, leaving behind the cheerful and childlike Shouji An with whom Mariko had fallen in love. She only wondered what had happened...

"It's only ten o'clock, so we have another hour to go. Mariko, do you want to go somewhere before they let us into the LaQua building..." The high school freshman trailed off as she turned to Mariko and noticed that Mariko's eyes had been on her all along. The girl's complexion went slightly pink. "Why aren't you eating yours? It's melting," she pointed out, her face a mix of embarrassment and delight, her deep blue eyes two brilliant gems that reflected all the glory of the cloudless heavens. Mariko knew that her love for An didn't make her exactly impartial... but she still believed that no other girl in this world could be as cute as her sweetheart.

"I'm going to." Mariko chuckled and began to sample her green tea-flavored cone. It tasted very good.

"As I was saying," An said, "we have another hour to go before the LaQua building opened. Is there somewhere you want to go before that?" She spread the Tokyo Dome City map across her lap and glanced a question at Mariko.

In TDC, there was a high-class spa and restaurant resort called the LaQua Center, where visitors could immerse themselves in the natural Koishikawa Hot Springs, rumored to be highly effective for skin care and curing shoulder discomfort and some other kinds of physical ailments. On the fifth floor of the building was the restaurant, where only the best cuisines were served along with a breath-taking view of the Tokyo Dome at night, when the stars on high and the lights of the entire amusement park fused into a spectacular scenery. LaQua, in other words, possessed the features that made Tokyo Dome City one of the most popular attraction centers in Tokyo.

The famous spa resort, in fact, was the reason why An took her here today. An's father, Sakuma Ryo-san, had gifted them with two VIP one-day passes for the Tokyo Dome City, which granted free service in all the attraction spots within the Tokyo Dome City, including every floor of the LaQua center. The novelist claimed that one of his connections – the man accidentally let slip that it was a lady – received the VIP passes as bonus for her job, but she didn't want to go so she gave them to him in the end. Mariko somehow... doubted that. Since he was an utterly indulgent and doting father, it was highly likely that he had purchased the passes himself and lied that they came from another person as a gift. She hoped she was wrong. The passes were extremely expensive... and Ryo-san's financial situation wasn't looking so well lately... so she would feel really bad if that were the case.

"Mariko?" An's concerned voice jerked her back to reality.

"Ah, I'm sorry," she murmured ruefully, "I was thinking about something." She took her girlfriend's vacant hand into hers and gave it an affectionate squeeze. "Say, would you like to ride that Ferris wheel over there?" Mariko suggested. "I'd like to have a look at the whole Tokyo Dome City from above." That was one of the reasons, yes. Almost instinctively, her eyes darted toward the great oak tree about thirty feet or so to her right. She gave a quiet sigh, almost unheard. She knew it was necessary, that it was the right thing to do, but it didn't necessarily mean that she liked it.

Mariko suppressed a second sigh.

"Shall we go?" An's voice spoke softly while she was no where to be seen. Turning her head, she saw that the high school freshman had positioned herself behind the wheelchair with her hands on the handles, a bright smile gracing her lips.

"Yes," she answered, and An wheeled her toward the end of the long, serpentine line of people waiting for their turn on the Ferris wheel.

* * *

"Don't you think this place is really pretty, Mariko?" Shouji An murmured softly as she peered out of one of the glass panels on the gondola. From here, a hundred feet above the ground, everything looked so small. The visitors, mostly adults who were half as tall and nearly twice as wide as her, now appeared tiny ants roaming around in chaos. Down there, they were rude, loud, noisy, and apparently blind the way they kept stepping on each other's feet and bumping into one another's front. Up here, they seemed to be on another planet.

Truth be told, An disliked amusement parks the way she did any other sort of crowded places. Had it not been for Mariko, the one she loved, she would never have come here even if she was threatened by a dozen grownups armed from their teeth to their toes. She couldn't help but smile. Oh how much she had changed. Several months ago, up to the time she first found herself trapped in The World, she had been a brat whose heart was not large enough to house anybody except herself and whose world comprised only of the room in which she lived. Now, her heart beat for Mariko alone, and her world was where the young woman was.

"Mariko?" she asked and turned around after a few minutes of no reply from her beloved. She froze. Although the twenty-year-old, clad in an unbuttoned white blouse, a blue collar shirt, and a pair of black jeans, was the one who suggested that they ride on the Ferris wheel in the first place, she currently paid no attention to the scenery. Sitting opposite from An, the blue-haired beauty merely gazed ahead, her shiny amber eyes fixed on nothing other than An's face. She blushed. When she was still Tsukasa in The World, she never had problem looking at Mariko or even holding the woman in her arms... but in the real world, every look Mariko sent her way never failed to quicken her heartbeat. And when Mariko kissed her...

She had never figured out why it made such a big difference in real life.

"I thought you wanted to go up here to look at the scenery," she accused. She only wished her voice had been strong and stern enough to match her words.

"Yes, but only partly." Mariko laughed softly into her hand. "Will you come over here, please?" She patted the vacant spot on her bench.

"Sure." An swallowed audibly, which made her girlfriend's laughter grow a little bit louder and more amused, then moved to Mariko's side. As soon as she settled down, she found Mariko's head resting on her shoulder, and the former's soft and fragrant body leaning against the left side of her own. Despite the fact that it should be the thousandth time or so that Mariko showed her affection through physical contact, she still couldn't prevent her heart to leap up her throat and race fast enough to beat a horse when it came down. Only very dimly did she feel herself wrapping her arm around her girlfriend's back, put a hand on the hollow of her waist, and snuggled much closer. The contented sigh issued from Mariko's mouth told An she appreciated it.

"Do you want to know the real reason behind my wanting to ride the Ferris wheel?" she heard Mariko speak very softly with the voice she used only in private. Musical, sweet, and very soothing.

"Yes."

"It's because up here, I don't have to be afraid that Satou-san would see me being intimate with you and report to Ryo-san," Mariko's voice dropped to a quiet whisper that only made the flames on An's cheeks burn even more fiercely. Worse, the warmth radiating from the body the lovely young woman threatened to overload her senses. "Just several minutes alone with you... but it's going to be enough."

Satou-san was the name of the man whom the famous hacker Helba charged with the duty of protecting An's beloved. When her dad reported to Helba, Balmung, and Lios what had happened between her and the stern woman who claimed to be the Public Relations Director of CC Corp, they had decided that something needed to be done. Amongst the four, the mysterious Helba alone possessed the power to dispatch men – assistants she called them – as she wished, so she took on the responsibility of guarding An and Mariko. As a result, they now had a professional bodyguard for a tail, who would make sure that no one suspicious would come within ten feet of either. Sure, that felt really assuring when she thought in horror that Minamoto Iriya was lurking somewhere nearby, scheming to make her sign that contract... but at the same time the protection had caused them all sort of inconveniences.

An and Mariko were no longer able to show their affection for each other outside of their rooms without risking Ryo discovering their relationship.

Not that Mariko cared too much about the whole secrecy business, she simply respected An's wish that neither of the parents should learn what was going on until An felt comfortable enough to tell them. Well... maybe she could do that with Ryo first... or she thought she could. Ryo was an open-minded man, and she was truly glad to have him for a father... but this was rather sensitive... and she couldn't be certain that he wasn't one of the people who had a heart attack as soon as they heard about two girls being more than just friends. After all, they had just been an official family for several months. There were still a lot that An didn't know about the novelist. Mariko believed that Ryo probably wouldn't see it as an issue... but An couldn't be so sure.

And then... there was still Misono Madoka to deal with. An loved her girlfriend with all her heart... but she had to admit that the young woman's mom had but a fraction of Ryo's affability. No matter how hard An tried to approach her, the middle-aged office lady never seemed moved by her efforts. Madoka, despite being the mother of the cheerful and ever so lovely Misono Mariko, had never greeted An with a friendly face. There could be no mistake. All that the woman ever harbored toward An was hostility. The explosive kind. She could see it in those tired amber eyes, she could hear it in Madoka's curt words, and she could feel it very clearly every time she went near her. It was one of the mysteries in her life to which she never found an answer. How in the Gods' names did she manage to make an enemy out of the mother of the woman she loved without trying?

An shivered. If An was unsure how Ryo would react to the news that she were dating Mariko, she was but certain that the young woman's mom would fetch a knife as soon as being told. Not the wisest thing for An to do... evidently.

"An," Mariko's voice and the feel of her smooth palm against An cheek brought her back to the interior of the slowly rising gondola. Her lovely girlfriend was gazing at her, slightly worried. "Is there anything wrong?"

"I'm thinking about your mom," An confessed.

"You shouldn't," her girlfriend said softly and soothingly as she once again laid her head upon An's shoulder. Her arms tightened around An's own "Everything will be alright. My mom always wants the best for me... and when she realizes that I need you more than anything, she'll accept you." She didn't sound half as convincing as she should... and An doubted that Misono Madoka would give up her daughter to a _girl_, one she especially disliked at that, without putting up a bloody fight.

"Okay," An told the older woman, trying to sound cheerful.

Smiling, Mariko lifted her head, pressed her hand gently against the back of An's neck, and kissed her. When her girlfriend pulled away, An thought her face was on fire once more. "Don't you wish that this ride won't be over for another hour or so?" the blue-haired beauty in her arms whispered before she leaned in again. Their lips stayed pressed together much longer this time... and they didn't part until the gondola approached the ground. When An left the circular compartment with Mariko in her arms, she noticed that the operator was studying her with an odd expression on his face. He had the look of someone who had seen something he shouldn't have.

Face aflame, An tried to ignore the man, wheeled Mariko away, and never stopped until she realized that she had reached the LaQua center without meaning to.

"We still have the rest of the day, An," Mariko commented with a smile. "No need to come straight here."

Deciding not to tell her girlfriend about the Ferris wheel operator but not really having a good excuse, An fumbled hurriedly in her mind, trying to find one. She finally did.

"The spa will be open in just a couple of minutes," she explained. "If we come early, we may not have to share the Hot Springs with other people." Mariko knew perfectly well that An wasn't very comfortable around strangers, especially in this place, where she had to enter a spring naked, so the young woman would most likely believe what An just said.

"Well... it's good you think that far ahead..." the blue-haired twenty-year-old hesitated and looked up at An with her beautiful amber eyes, "but do you really want to be in the onsen alone... with me?" She lowered her gaze and started fidgeting with her blouse's buttons.

Shock seized An. For all the planning she did last night, she never questioned herself what going to the spa with Mariko would mean. And worse, since there was nobody around the Center at this moment while it was about to open any time soon, chances were that the excuse An came up with would come true. Her blood started to boil. For all the kissing and embracing they had done in private, they never attempted to go any further... and now... they were going to see each other in nothing but their skin. She wasn't really sure if it was what she really wanted to happen.

Silence passed between them, with neither dared to look the other in the eye, until An decided that backing out at this point would be really stupid and wasteful.

"I'll be alright," she managed weakly, "I think."

"Okay then," replied Mariko in a voice that was no stronger.

At that moment, the "Open" sign behind the double glass door flashed into life and signified that the Center was now functional. A minute barely passed before a female assistant, in blue and white uniform of LaQua, appeared and bid them welcome with a deep bow. Stuffing hesitation into the deepest corner of her mind and locking it there, An wheeled Mariko inside the Center, hoping that she wasn't going to die from the embarrassment.

Fifteen minutes later, she panicked.

Mostly immersed in the hot water under the wooden rafters that allowed a limited view of the cerulean sky, surrounded by the rocks that lined the somewhat rectangular outdoor bath, accompanied by her girlfriend, An decided that it was a bad idea to come here in the first place. Well, sure, it was really soothing and relaxing in the onsen... but the comfort of the body couldn't compensate for the unease of her mind. In fact, she thought half of her existence was screaming at her and urging her to get out of here immediately. As for the other half... it was whispering in a very alluring voice and suggesting that she moved closer to the wonder sitting but half a hand to her left.

An glanced sideways.

There she was, the love of An's life, gazing straight ahead so intensely that it was obvious she was trying not to look in An's direction. Thanks to the hot spring's water, which bore the green color of the floor of the pool, most of Mariko's naked figure was safely concealed. All An could see of her lovely girlfriend was the blue flowing hair glistened from the moisture of the steam, her pearly neck, her slender shoulders, and a part of her firm, ample chest, the sight of which whipped An's head back to where it was. Her breathing quickened considerably, as did her heart pulse. Whatever people might believe... being a girl did _not_ help in this kind of situation... at all.

The voices in her head were still struggling against one another in a fierce battle. On one hand, she wanted to pull the young woman into her arms, embraced her as tightly as she could, and relished the feel of her sweetheart's bare body, a feel that she never experienced. On the other hand, she was so ashamed at the thought that she wished she could bang her head against one of the rocks. Hugging her knees, she dipped her head under the water surface, hoping the hot spring would somehow help her cleanse her head and snuff out the fire beneath her skin.

It didn't. Gods, but she wished her dad hadn't offered her the VIP passes.

The sound of splashing water caught her attention and turned her head. Mariko, her hands on the floor, was trying to shift her body into a more upright position. She slipped and lost her balance. Before An could think, her arms had already reached out to catch the one she loved. That was how she ended up with the young woman in her embrace afterwards. Her breath caught, her blood rushed to her face, and her mind went numb as she looked down and found Mariko's amber eyes gazing upward, the tips of their noses so close together they almost touched. Her breaths on An's face were searing – pleasantly so, oddly enough – even amidst the steam rising from the water, her flesh hot enough to make her breaths seem cool.

Eyes riveted on her girlfriend's beautiful face, decorated with droplets of water that shone like gemstones under the sunlight, An felt herself trembling. This was certainly not good.

Yet... even though she knew that anyone could step into the outdoor bath at this moment, she couldn't seem able to peel herself away from Mariko's slender frame. Worse, as if she had lost the control over herself, she could only watch as her arms tightened around the body of her girlfriend, as her hand started to wander the young woman's back... lower... and lower still.

When Mariko's upper body suddenly tensed up, the fear that she was going to be mad at An stayed her hands completely. That was why she was taken aback when her sweet girlfriend nuzzled her nose against hers, moved in, and claimed her lips. As she sensed Mariko's arm fasten around her waist and remove the distance between their bare bodies, however little it was, she closed her eyes and let her passion shatter the fragile rein she had placed on herself from the beginning. Without any reservation and embarrassment to hold her back, An poured her heart and soul into a kiss that was much more intense than any they ever shared. Her tongue, as though possessing a will of its own, entered her sweetheart's mouth, seeking warmth, sweetness, and reciprocation.

The intimacy probably was too much for her beloved girlfriend to bear.

The young woman suddenly withdrew her lips, put her hands on An's shoulders, and pushed herself away. Instinctively and almost unconsciously, An tried to pull her sweetheart back into her arms and kissed her again for all she was worth. She couldn't, for Mariko had pressed a hand against An's lips and halted her dead in her tracks. Panic was all that filled the young woman's deep amber eyes.

"I'm sorry," Mariko whispered, her breath ragged, her voice sheepish. "I have to stop. If I don't..." she paused and swallowed hard, "I can't imagine what's going to happen." She gave an apologetic smile. "I don't want the management to charge you with public indecency." Afterwards, she gazed at An and let her fingertips trail down An's cheek in a most loving and longing manner. That facial expression, regretful and unbelievably cute at the same time, did not help, at all.

Accepting the VIP passes, An thought bitterly, was the greatest mistake in her life. It made her realize that deep down, she craved for Mariko's body as much as she did the young woman's soul, a desire she never thought she possessed. The knowledge was very... disquieting... especially when she knew that she was going to stay over at Mariko's tonight.

The _entire_ night, with no one else there to interfere should the two of them decide to continue where they left off.

* * *

"We're home," Misono Mariko murmured when the wheelchair pulled to a stop in front of her apartment on the sixth floor of the Kanagawa Place. "Here you go." She handed her girlfriend the key, which An took and used to unlock the door. Gazing at An's back, Mariko's mind reeled. Earlier today, when the sun was dawning upon the skyscrapers of Tokyo, Madoka had left for the Tokyo Station so that she could catch a train to Saitama with her supervisor. She wasn't going to return until tomorrow evening, if then. An knew this... so she had offered to stay with Mariko until her mom came back. She had only been grateful toward the high school freshman in the beginning, knowing that the love of her life was very worried about her... Yet... after the episode at the LaQua Center... Mariko was having second thoughts.

Would she dare let An stay overnight when just several hours ago, she nearly jumped out of her skin trying to kiss the girl forever? In fact, had she not invoked every ounce of her willpower to stop herself from going any further, she would have. The very thought was frightening. Never before did she realize how strong her yearning toward An was. Never before did she fully understand that the closer she was to her girlfriend, the more likely it would be for her to want to consummate their relationship. It was human nature. It couldn't be helped.

The door creaked open, revealing an interior lit by the light that came pouring in through the glass windows. While An was wheeling her inside, Mariko surreptitiously studied the girl she loved over her shoulder. Based on the way uneasiness grew on her face after every step she took, Mariko would say that the high school freshman was deeply disturbed. Not that it was rare to see An so whenever she visited Mariko, of course. Madoka, might the Gods bless her, had always treated An with such coldness and hostility that even Mariko became extremely unsettled as soon as her girlfriend and her mom came within five feet of one another. Still, at this moment, Mariko was under the impression that An's uneasy mood had been greatly augmented. She but wondered if the girl was still thinking about what had happened in the hot springs.

Mariko let out a quiet sigh and hoped that the rest of the day wouldn't be as... exciting as the time they spent in Tokyo Dome City.

Fifteen minutes had barely passed when her heart assured her that what she wished for wasn't going to come true.

It all started when they sat down to watch a DVD An rented on the way home. An told her that the sempais in her acting club hailed this movie as the ultimate romance flick ever brought to the screen. Mariko never found out whether the claim was justified or not... because during the first hour that followed, in which An gazed at the TV intensely, she couldn't keep her attention on anything else except the lovely girl who was sitting on the same couch, a good arm's length away. At first, Mariko didn't understand why she was so restless... and it disturbed her greatly when the reason finally dawned upon her.

She was longing desperately for physical contact with the high school freshman. She fervently wanted to be touched.

Granted, the need was always there; she was head over heels in love, after all. Still, it was but a tiny spark of emotion that was perfectly controlled under other circumstances. Now, it was a bonfire that couldn't be doused. The intimacy moment they shared in the onsen had taken its toll. She wasn't sure its damage was going to be repaired... if ever.

Toward the second half of the movie, it dawned on Mariko that unless she did something, she was going to be driven insane. Sighing, she reached for An's hand. At the contact, the brown-haired girl gave a start that nearly lifted her from the couch. Despite the flame that was burning her inside out and putting her on edge, Mariko laughed at her girlfriend's reaction. Sheepish and shy as the girl was, she had never been so jumpy before.

"Yes?" the seventeen-year-old asked afterward, her face reddening, her voice anxious and tight.

"Can I rest my head on your lap?" Mariko asked, voice slightly sheepish. "I'd like to lie down for a little bit."

"Sure." The answer was hesitant, but it did come.

The high school freshman rose to her feet and helped Mariko lie down on her side on the couch. Then as requested, she settled down near one end and laid Mariko's head on her lap in a most gentle manner. Sighing again, this time in contentment, Mariko rubbed her cheek against An's thighs, covered by her short pants, and unintentionally elicited a small gasp from her lovely girlfriend. Smiling inwardly, she closed her eyes and enjoyed the sense of serenity that slowly enveloped her entire self. Shortly afterwards, she felt An's hand on her head, stroking it slowly, tentatively, and awkwardly. Cooing softly with her eyes still closed, she took that warm, tender hand into hers and brought it to her mouth, where she place light kisses on its palm and fingertips. Then she pressed it against her cheek and kept it there. Her girlfriend showed no sign that she wanted to take it back.

"You don't like this movie," the seventeen-year-old observed.

"Do you?"

"No, it was really boring."

"But you seemed to enjoy it the way you glued your eyes on the screen."

Silence.

Mariko was surprised when she realized that the hand on her cheek was growing hotter and a little bit sweatier. She opened her eyes, turned around, and looked up. Her sweetheart was blushing. She suddenly understood. An did have her eyes fixed on the screen, but she didn't do so because the movie was interesting. _'She was just avoiding looking at me,'_ Mariko thought. The incident at the LaQua Center had unnerved her so badly that she forgot that it could have affected the other girl, too. In fact, since An was the more bashful between the two of them, she must have been shocked to the base of her foundation.

"I'm sorry, An," she murmured as her hand rose and placed its palm against her sweetheart's cheek. "I must have upset you. I... lost self-control back there in the hot spring so I... I'm sorry. I really am," she repeated her apology in great apprehension, hoping with all her heart that An wasn't angry with her. She wished she hadn't kissed An in the LaQua Center's outdoor bath. She wished she had been able to exert a little more control on herself and not let her impulse take over.

"Well... to tell you the truth," An said after a moment of silence, during which she did nothing except gazing deeply into Mariko's eyes, "I didn't fare any better." The color on the freshman's face deepened. "You looked so beautiful back there that I couldn't help myself. If you hadn't stopped first, there was no telling what I would have done." Toward the end, her voice dropped so low that had Mariko not strained her ears to listen, she would never have heard. Once she realized what An said, though, she felt herself blushing furiously.

Silence descended once more... only that this time, it made Mariko extremely uncomfortable. Despite the fact that she was trying her best to refrain from recalling the torrential current of love and desire she experienced in the onsen, An's honest words laid all her efforts and determination to waste. The memory rose in her mind stronger than ever. It was as if she was still immersed in the hot water of the outdoor bath. It was as if she were still being held within the curve of An's arms. Even now, she could still recall the texture of An's moist and silky skin, the firmness of her breasts, the fragrant scent of the shampoo she washed her hair with before entering the onsen, and the incredible sweetness of her lips and tongue. Mariko's body started growing hot, her throat dry, her breath uneven, and her mind numb. She could feel liquid desire coursing in her veins. She could hear it sing endlessly in her ears. She knew what it was urging her to do.

_'This is bad,'_ she thought in alarm.

Knowing that An felt the same way as her surely didn't help. In fact, it just made the situation decidedly more awkward and disquieting, for while her head was buzzing with thoughts more indecent than any that she ever had in her life, the target of those thoughts was within her arm's reach. Worse, as she looked up, she realized that her own longing was mirrored in the deep blue eyes of the girl she cherished. That was when she fully registered the fact that resistance was futile.

It wasn't very clear whether Mariko lifted her head or An lowered hers first. All that Mariko knew was that their mouths met afterwards in a kiss that was soft, light, and tentative in the beginning but grew so intense so quickly that it could easily put the one they had in the Koishikawa Hot Springs to shame. And so they lips remained locked together, parting only ever so quickly to replenish the air in their lungs just so they could kiss again. Dignity cast aside, inhibitions forgotten, embarrassment damned to the deepest layer of hell, the only thing Mariko desired at this moment was everything that her lover could offer... everything she possessed...

With her entire consciousness submerged in the ocean of bliss, only very dimly did she feel An's hand fall softly upon her cheek, where it stopped momentarily to caress her in a most loving manner before it descended down her face, her neck, and then her breast. Surprised, Mariko's eyes sprang open as she broke the kiss. As if struck, the brown-haired girl recoiled, regret and embarrassment but evident across her face.

"I'm sorry," she muttered, her head hanging in shame, "I... I presumed too much... I really shouldn't have."

"No, no, it's not that," Mariko frantically assured the high school freshman. "I was just surprised, that's all. I love being touched by you, An," she added once she noticed that her girlfriend didn't give any indication that she believed. "Besides... don't you think we should retire to my room? I'd much prefer... my bed to this couch." Mariko couldn't even force herself to imagine how her mom would react if she heard her say such an embarrassing thing... to another girl. Madoka wouldn't disown her... would she?

"Are you sure, Mariko?" An asked worriedly after a while. "I don't want you to regret later just because of my selfish wish."

The response brought a little smile to Mariko's lips. Cupping An's chin with one hand, she quietly pulled the brown-haired girl's face a little bit lower just so Mariko could place a soft peck on the tip of her nose. "I'm not going to regret it, An," she whispered, "because... that's what I want from the bottom of my heart, too."

"For real?" An asked wonderingly. She sounded unable to believe her own ears.

"Yes," Mariko answered. "A thousand times yes."

An said nothing and gazed at her for a good five minutes before she gently scooped Mariko into her arms and carried her toward her room. Joy and love were all that could be seen on the freshman's wonderful face. _'I love you so much, An,'_ was the only thought Mariko had before she was laid gently upon the soft mattress of her bed.

* * *

Sitting in the hotel room that she shared with her supervisor, a woman who already gray in the hair and long in the tooth, Misono Madoka quietly dial her daughter's cell phone number. Because of her job, she had had to leave the child home all alone today, something she had not done during the last ten years of her life... and within every second that she spent on this trip, she grew more worried and restless. It was high time she called and made sure everything was alright with Mariko. She wished she hadn't been so busy ever since she stepped onto the train that departed from Tokyo. She only hoped nothing had happened at home. 

Deep down... she had a terrible feeling that something already _did_.

* * *

Embraced by the sickly orange light of the bed lamp on the small table nearby, Misono Mariko was under the impression that her life, ripped to shreds by that terrible accidents ten years in the shadow of the past and newly mended several months ago by the appearance of the one girl who was trapped in The World, had just been made anew. She turned her head and found herself unable to breathe at the wondrous sight that unfolded before her eyes.

Reclining against the headboard of the bed was her beloved girlfriend, Shouji An, whose tender arms wrapped protectively around Mariko's waist, whose hands laced atop her abdomen, whose front rose and fell most seductively against her back, whose chin rested on her shoulder, whose heart beat in a quiet but alluring melody along with her very own. Under a blanket that guarded their bodies against the cold weather and augmented the warmth that stemmed from every fiber of their existence, Mariko felt as though she had been melted into one single entity as the one she loved. At this moment, joy and contentment were all that filled her soul… and if someone told her that her legs were going to stay disabled for the rest of her life, her spirit still wouldn't be dampened one bit. Nothing mattered except An... and as long as she remained by Mariko's side, this world would always remain her paradise. _'Where I truly belong,'_ she thought.

"Mariko?" An called, her voice a soft whisper that spoke volumes of love, her warm breath a caress on Mariko's face. She gazed at her lover in utmost wonder. It was as if the magical encounter they had but a moment ago had removed the last shreds of reservation from An. It was as if the girl's innate shyness had never existed.

Misono Mariko had never been drunk except that one time a few years back, when she was so depressed she decided to use alcohol to make herself forget the torment of living. She knew that Madoka always had a in the fridge a bottle of red wine, from which she once in a while would drink one or two cups at night to overcome her chronic insomnia and ease her way into the world of dreams. That day, when her mom was still at work, she had taken out the bottle and consumed half of its content. She never woke until a full day had passed, and once she did she immediately suffered from a massive hangover and a serious scolding from Madoka at the same time, but she never forgot how the wine had elevated her from depression and erased all her sorrow. Just now, that one word from her lover, a simple call of her name, reminded her exactly how it felt to have half a bottle of wine infused in her blood.

The sensation of the brown-haired girl's naked body pressed against hers only served to increase the intoxicating effect.

"Yes?" she answered with a voice that was equally soft.

"It's time for dinner," An said after a glance at the clock on the desk sitting opposite the bed, near the computer. It read seven thirty in the evening. "Do you want me to prepare something for you?"

Mariko shook her head. "It's okay, I'm not hungry. Stay here, don't go anywhere." The last thing she wanted at the moment was to be parted from her lover.

Her traitorous stomach decided to contradict her words by rumbling slightly beneath An's interlaced hands. The girl tightened her arms around Mariko's body and laughed softly against her neck. She blushed hotly.

"It's not good for your health to stay hungry, you know," her sweetheart reminded her. For some reason, she was reminded of her mom. She could only shake her head in wonder. How in Heaven's name could two persons on opposite sides of the spectrum sound so much alike? "What do you want to eat?"

Knowing that she couldn't get out of this no matter what she attempted, and that An only wanted the best thing for her, she tried to think of a dish which didn't take too long to prepare, and which wouldn't require An to go to some nearby grocery store to get the ingredients. She suddenly realized that her girlfriend didn't have to cook at all.

"My mom left me a large pot of beef stew that she made last night," she said. "It's in the fridge."

"Okay, I'll heat it up." An unlaced her hands and withdrew her arms from Mariko's waist. The girl's vanishing touch elicited a deep, regretful sigh. "Wait just a bit, ne? I'll be right back. Or do you want to eat in the kitchen?" By the time the brown-haired girl was done saying that, she were already standing on the floor and pulling on her white shirt and pants, leaving Mariko lying on her side on the bed, her bare frame safely concealed beneath the thick blanket. The Gods standing witness, Mariko had lain alone on this very same mattress, in this very same room during the last ten years... but right now, she decided that she hated it. It took most of her strength just to refrain herself from pulling her girlfriend back to bed and never let go.

"Here's okay," she replied. She really didn't want to put An through the trouble of carrying her to the kitchen just to bring her back here a while later. She was slightly taller, and heavier than what a frail young girl could carry without tiring herself out in the end. "And just pop it into the microwave. No need to use the stove," she called before An could open the door to her room and leave.

Standing at the doorstep, An turned around and mumbled with a face stained by blossoming colorful spots, "You just want to have me back here as soon as possible, don't you?" She grinned afterwards.

"Can you blame me?" she answered softly with a smile. "Who would want to be apart from you?"

The color of the spots deepened. "Well, I can think of a number of people," her grin faltered a little bit... but it grew wider after a look at Mariko's face. "But no, I'm not going to let you follow dad's bad eating habit. Even though I keep telling him that microwave is bad for his health, he never listens." She shook her head exasperatedly. "Well, he I could do nothing about... but you..." a mischievous gleam appeared in her deep blue eyes, "I'll make sure _you_ eat properly."

With that, the girl left.

"She _does_ sound like mom," Mariko muttered ruefully to herself.

After fifteen minutes, which stretched so painfully long that Mariko would have sworn she had waited for more than an hour, An reappeared in the room with a tray in hands. On it sat a bowl of beef stew from which smoke was still billowing. It smelled so good that it made Mariko's mouth water, much to her dismay. Madoka seldom had time to prepare anything for her daughter – they, like Ryo-san when An was in school, lived mainly on canned food – but when she did cook, she wouldn't lose to most restaurant chefs in Tokyo. Mariko's mom could turn a simple dish into exquisite cuisine, and she knew it for fact. This beef stew was proof enough.

"Here you go." An placed the tray across Mariko's lap after she had helped her sit up straight on the bed with the blanket wrapped around her person. "Eat while it's still hot." From An's tone, anyone would have said that between the two of them, she was the older. Mariko could only let out a quiet chuckle and let it slide. Besides, it felt good to be babied by the one she loved. She wasn't going to admit it to the girl's face any time soon, though.

"Is it good?" An asked once Mariko had a chance to eat a few spoons. The girl was sitting on her knees on the floor, arms folded on the mattress, chin propped on one hand, lips curved upward in a fond smile that lovers reserved for each other. She looked such a criminally cute young lady that Mariko only wanted to look at her until the end of time.

"Try it and find out," Mariko said and fed her sweetheart a spoonful she already blew on to lessen the heat.

"Your mom's good!" An exclaimed afterwards.

"She is," Mariko agreed. "Want more?"

"It's okay, I can get my own bowl." The seventeen-year-old shook her head. "It's your portion."

"You brought me too much," Mariko protested, "I can't finish it anyway. Help me, ne?" She was telling the whole truth. Judging from the size of the bowl that she was given, her girlfriend must have thought that Mariko had been starved for days.

"Okay." The Touyou Eiwa freshman rose to her feet and sat down on Mariko's left, where they shared the rest of the stew. Who would have thought that the simple act of feeding her lover with her own hand could make her so happy? Who could have figured that just by sitting by one another's side, watching each other eat, could provide a contentment that even wealth and fame would fail to give?

"Do you want more, Mariko?" An inquired. The bowl, along with the tray, now lay atop the table, its content now generating a source of warmth deep within Mariko's stomach.

"Gods, no!" She laughed. "What do you take me for, a glutton?"

"You ate so little when we had lunch in LaQua," An said, her tone reeking of disapproval.

"So did you," Mariko countered, more amused than ever. Did the girl honestly expect that one could keep her appetite after the incident in the outdoor bath? While they were dining in the high-class restaurant on the fifth floor of LaQua Center, the only thing that Mariko felt was the need to throw the knife and fork away and find a hole to bury herself under. She suspected that the other girl must have experienced the same problem the way she insisted on murdering and mutilating her food before she ate it.

"Uh... well..." She scratched her head in slight embarrassment.

"You're too green to play the parents game with me, young lady." Mariko pulled her girlfriend into a snug embrace and tickled her. They both laughed. It was only then did a question she had earlier suddenly resurfaced in her mind. She stopped her tickling and quietly held her sweet girlfriend tight. In response, An snuggled deeper into Mariko's embrace and rest her head against Mariko's chest.

"Can I ask you something, An?" she murmured atop her sweetheart's head.

"Go ahead."

"Why are you so cheerful today?"

"What do you mean?" The girl looked up at Mariko, nonplussed.

"Remember last week? You have seemed so depressed then," she explained, then stopped, not really knowing how to proceed. Perhaps she shouldn't have voiced her question at all.

Luckily for her, An understood. "I've been thinking about us during the last week, Mariko," the girl said, her expression growing melancholic, her voice distant. "The more I considered, the more I realized that I'd been doing the wrong things all along." Her hand rose to comb through Mariko's flowing tresses. "In two weeks, you'll be half a world away," she continued, "there are better things for me to do than brooding about your departure. I finally understood that it's more important that I spend these two weeks having with you instead."

Mariko gazed at her lover, sensing warmth welling in her soul.

"I've been very childish, haven't I? I'm sorry," An murmured, her voice racked with shame. She turned her head away.

"No, don't be!" Mariko told her sweetheart. "It just shows how much you love me, and I truly appreciate it." She cupped An's face and turned it so they could look into each other's eyes. Then she kissed her. "I'm very proud of you, An," she whispered tenderly. "Do I have to keep telling you that having you for a girlfriend is the most fortunate thing that has ever happened to me?"

"Well..." the love of her life whispered back, "I won't mind if you say that every once in a while." A smile blossomed on her lips and lit up her face.

Mariko laughed and moved in to kiss the high school freshman again. Quickly enough, the meeting of lips grew passionate and rekindled the flame that had practically burned Mariko inside out before An carried her to the bed. Almost soundlessly, the blanket that had been hiding her nakedness was untied and fell to the bed. Before she knew it, her hands were tugging at the hem of An's shirt, trying to lift it up and reveal to her once more the wonder lying beneath the thin fabric.

When she woke up with her girlfriend sleeping soundly within her embrace the morning after, which was heralded by the sunlight beating on her window's blinds and the digital clock that read seven thirty atop her desk, she reached for her cell phone nearby to check whether she had any new messages.

To her surprise, she saw that the thing had been shut down, which she didn't recall doing. Frowning, she turned the power back on, flipped the electronic device... and was informed by the log that twenty-seven calls had reached the device last night, at least ten of which were before the phone itself went offline, which were never picked up. She knew why. Her reckless abandon with An must have occupied enough of her attention to render her oblivious to the ring tone. Yet... she didn't believe it mattered whether she had heard or not, though. She doubted she was going to answer the calls in any case.

Mariko felt a blush creeping onto her cheek as she stole a quick glance at the stunningly beautiful figure being snuggled warmly in the curves of her arms. _'How could I let go of her just because of a phone call?'_ she thought. The Gods standing witness, even if the Prime Minister knocked on her door last night, she would still leave the man standing there until she had time for him.

After placing a soft peck on her girlfriend's forehead, she checked for the identity of the callers. She froze. All twenty-seven calls were placed by only one person… and that person was her mom, Madoka. The smile slipped off her lips in an instant while a feeling of unease wormed its way into her mind. In her euphoric state, she had but forgotten that aside from solicitors who just wanted to advertise new wheelchair models each month, Madoka was the one person who called from work every day to make sure nothing had happened to Mariko at home. Madoka must have been worried sick last night to have placed this many phone calls. With guilt nettling her heart, Mariko dialed her mom's number.

While she was waiting for the line to be connected, she took another glance at her sweet girlfriend and considered withdrawing her arm. She rejected the idea almost instantly. Although it might feel terribly weird for her to talk to her _mom_ with a girl sleeping naked in her arms, she didn't have the heart, or the will, to let go of her sweetheart, who was clinging to Mariko with such a blissful expression on her adorable face. Sighing, she held An even closer, pulled the blanket up a little bit higher to make sure the girl wouldn't get cold, and waited for Madoka to pick up the phone.

"Where were you last night?" Madoka demanded, concern and fury warring in her voice. She hadn't sounded this angry since the time Mariko drank half of her wine bottle.

Swallowing uneasily, she answered with a voice as low as possible so that she wouldn't wake her beloved, "Home, mom."

"Then why didn't you pick up the _damn_ phone?" her mom's voice thundered and made her give a small start, which in turn caused An to stir softly in her arms. Thankfully, the brown-haired girl continued to stay in the world of dreams, absolutely oblivious to the disaster that was descending on Mariko's head.

"I'm sorry, mom," she said ruefully.

"Sorry doesn't cut it!" Madoka fired back. "Can you imagine how worried I was?"

"I'm sorry," Mariko repeated, feeling worse with every second that passed. Here she was last night, having fun with her girlfriend while her mother, the one who had cared for her with utmost devotion during the last ten years, tried to reach her all night in the fear that something had happened to her. Madoka deserved better than this.

There was a moment of silence on the phone, during which Mariko was under the impression that her mom was trying to calm herself down. Madoka's deepening breaths only confirmed her guess. Mariko's heart went out to her. Madoka, ever since the death of her husband and the disablement of her daughter's legs, had been subjected to great stress, which led to her high blood pressure. As a result, she needed to take her medicine every day or she wouldn't be able to endure the amount of work that was piled upon her shoulders. Mariko only hoped that her negligence last night didn't antagonize her mother too much.

"What happened?" Madoka asked, sounding much calmer despite the steely and thin quality of her voice.

Mariko found herself at a loss for words. She never lied to her mom in her entire life, and she never wanted to... _'Yet do I dare reveal the truth?' _she thought bitterly. _'Do I dare tell her that I ignored her calls because I was making love to An?'_ Being aware of just exactly what kind of emotions Madoka harbored toward the Touyou Eiwa freshman, Mariko couldn't help but realize that the knowledge might just become a knife that plunged into Madoka's already fragile heart.

"Mariko? Are you still there?" she demanded.

"Ah yes," Mariko hastily answered. "Nothing happened, mom. I just had a terrible headache yesterday so I switched the phone to vibrate mode and went to sleep. I'm sorry, mom." _'For lying to you,'_ she finished mentally.

"Are you feeling okay?" Madoka's voice softened immediately, which made Mariko feel even more terrible. "Did you eat enough? Did you take medicine afterwards?"

"Yeah, I'm alright. I had the stew you left before I went to bed. It was delicious, mom."

"It's good then." She could almost picture her mom smiling in relief on the other side of the phone. "Do try to take care of yourself, Mariko," Madoka added, concern once again back in her words.

"I will," Mariko promised._ 'For your sake, for An's sake, for my own sake,' _she thought.

"I'll be home tomorrow afternoon," Madoka announced. "The stew should be enough to cover you until then."

"Not tonight, mom?"

"No. The business meeting was lengthier and more complicated than what we expected," we, meaning Madoka and her supervisor, "so it'll take a little bit more time."

"I see," Mariko said, trying to guard her voice as much as possible. On one hand, she was slightly worried that Madoka had to spend extra time and effort on her job. On the other hand... she was happy to know that she could still spend another day... and another night with the one she loved. She wasn't very proud of herself... but she couldn't help but feeling the way she did.

"Oh, my boss is calling for me," her mom said. "I have to go. Remember what I said, Mariko. Take care of yourself." She hung up.

After she put her cell phone back where it was, she looked at the cuddly girl in her arms and was surprised to see that her girlfriend was looking at her with those adorable deep blue eyes.

She greeted the love of her life with a light kiss on her lips. "Hi there."

"Good morning," An said and burrowed deeper into Mariko's embrace. "Did you sleep well?" the seventeen-year-old murmured drowsily against Mariko's neck.

"Very," she answered, smiling inwardly. _'With you here by my side, how could I not?' _"How about you?"

"Not well at all," her girlfriend said and gave a tremulous yawn. She sounded very tired. "Every time I managed to close my eyes, your cell phone rang and woke me up. I'm a very light sleeper, you see."

"I'm so sorry," Mariko apologized, feeling blood suffusing her cheeks. Why was it that only she got a good night sleep when the two people dearest to her barely slept a wink?

"After the tenth time or so," An continued, seemingly unaware of what Mariko just said, "I turned it off. It's partly because I was growing irritated... and partly because you seemed to be sleeping so peacefully that I didn't want it to wake you up." Her voice grew sheepish toward the end. It was as if she was ashamed of what she did. "I'm sorry if I overstepped my bounds."

Mariko chuckled softly and assured her girlfriend, "Don't worry about that. It's okay. But next time, be sure to wake me up if the phone kept ringing, ne? It could be some emergency." She brushed An's hair affectionately.

"Okay." The high school freshman smiled up at her. "But who was it that called you?"

"You didn't hear me talking?" Mariko asked, surprised.

"No. I woke up moments before the call ended." An shook her head.

"It was my mom," Mariko told her

"Oh." The brown-haired girl's body, cuddly and soft just a second before, tensed up at the mentioning of Madoka. "What did she say?" she inquired uncomfortably.

"She said she wasn't going to be home until tomorrow afternoon," Mariko whispered into her sweetheart's ear and placed a quick peck on the girl's cheek. "That means you can stay here for another day... with me." Then she kissed An deeply on the lips and tightened her arms around the Touyou Eiwa freshman's relaxing frame. One more day to spend by the side of the one she loved, one more day to strengthen their bond before Mariko left for the U.S., and one more day to relive the magical encounter that had kept them spellbound. She only hoped their time together would be enough to help her survive the one year she was going to spend apart from the one girl who had grown to be more than a half of her existence.

* * *


	4. Paradise

_

* * *

.hack/SIGN: WHERE I BELONG_

_Chapter four: Paradise.  
_

* * *

Treading alone under the starry heavens, upon a street lit by lamp poles that must have survived from the Second World War, Misono Madoka wondered for the thousandth time whether it was a good decision to leave Saitama on an express train and return to Tokyo. True, the business meeting between Hakusensha, represented by Madoka and her elderly supervisor, and another firm had concluded two hours ago, which meant that she could go wherever she wanted. But... her supervisor had insisted that she stay and take advantage of all the service that the first class hotel they were staying in had to offer, all expenses paid by the gray-haired lady herself. Yet, despite her supervisor's gracious offer, despite the fact that it was by no means safe to travel alone at night, she had hopped on the earliest express train bound for home. 

_'Mariko.'_ Her daughter's name floated across her mind. The child was the reason Madoka risked the displeasure of her supervisor, something she had tried her very best to avoid during the last ten years. Still, it wasn't as if she had a choice. Mariko was all that she had left in this world, the only treasure that her beloved husband left with her when he was killed in that nasty car accident. Madoka simply didn't have the heart to leave the child home all by herself two nights in a row. What if she fell? What if someone broke into the house before she could call for help? What if...? Madoka forced herself to stop thinking about what could happen to Mariko when she was away. The more she did, the more anxious she would be, and the more stress would be placed on her already fragile heart. It would be a great irony if she suffered from a heart attack and died here on the street even when her daughter was safe and sound.

Yet... even though she had commanded herself to be calm numerous times during the walk home and assured herself equal amount of times that the Gods wouldn't be giving her, someone already swimming in an ocean of hardship, more problems to deal with, Madoka found her eyes fixed at something lying just a little bit beyond her doorstep. There was no light in the house except that of the silver moon reigning on high... yet she was dead sure she was looking at a pair of white sneakers belonging to a person she had come to dislike very much despite their short period of acquaintance. Those were Shouji An's, there was no doubt about it. Her heart stopped, her blood ran cold, and her hands clenched into fists. What the hell was the damn girl doing in Madoka's house in the middle of the night? And where was she? Why was she not in the living room, the only place in which she was permitted to stay whenever she made one of her annoying visits?

Suddenly feeling suffocated, she walked toward her daughter's room, the door to which, she noticed immediately, was left ajar. From the small opening, a very dim light was spilling out into the hallway. It was barely brighter than the light of the crescent moon outside… but it was more than enough to let Madoka see that her daughter wasn't alone on the bed. The child, most of her body except her head covered by a thick blanket, was snoozing soundly next to Shouji An, who also seemed to be immersed in a deep slumber. When Madoka's eyes fell on the floor near the bed, she saw a small pile of clothing articles the content of which suggested to Madoka that the two persons on the bed were wearing nothing but their skin.

As if struck by a steel hammer, Madoka staggered backward and had to put a hand on the wall to steady herself. Slowly, with her mind devoid of thoughts, she dragged her body, which currently seemed to weigh at least a mountain, to the living room and sat down heavily on the old couch. There, she pulled out her medication box from her bag and hurriedly swallowed a few tablets. Then she buried her face in her hands and feel her whole self shaking in a hurricane formed by feelings of anger, disappointment, and regret.

She was angry at herself for creating such a window of opportunity. Had she tried a little bit harder, she could have got out of the business trip with her supervisor and none of this would have happened under her roof. She was disappointed at her daughter, to whom Madoka devoted all her time and effort, for having committed such a twisted act of perversion. Had it been a man, Madoka could have found it in her to forgive and forget... yet this was a girl her daughter had brought to her bed, a girl three years her junior. And of course, she regretted that in spite of her love for her daughter and her reluctance to hurt the child, Madoka was going to make sure that Shouji An stayed out of Mariko's life forever.

The more she thought about it, the more Madoka felt that her newly made decision was right. Her daughter deserved better than a brat who had nothing better to do than seducing other women. She only wished that she had come to this conclusion a couple of months ago, when she first found out about her daughter's true relationship with Shouji An. Had she realized what kind of horrific road her daughter was walking down at that time, had she realized that everything would come to this, she would have been firm and resolute and nipped the danger in the bud.

Still... it was not too late to right her wrongs now. Of course, she was fully aware that she was about to crush Mariko's happiness with her own hands… yet she wouldn't let the knowledge impede her. In time, the child would realize that all that Madoka did was for her sake. One day, when Mariko was finally married to an upstanding man and had children, she would thank Madoka from the bottom of her heart.

Determined, she rose to her feet and walked back toward the hallway. She stopped abruptly, however, when the door to Mariko's room opened and admitted Shouji An, whose lower thighs and legs were visible beneath her long T-shirt, whose face was wild with embarrassment, whose mouth was hanging open in the dimness of the bed lamp's light, whose eyes were filled with shock and fear. The seventeen-year-old appeared to be looking at a ghost.

Peering into the room, Madoka was infinitely relieved that her daughter hadn't woken up.

"Oba... san?" Shouji managed in a tight voice.

"Evening, Shouji-san," Madoka replied coolly. It was a good thing that the brat came out of the room on her own. This way, Madoka didn't have to walk into the room, drag her out of the bed, and risked an episode of drama with her daughter, which surely she had no need of. "Why don't you... put on some _more_ clothes," her eyes regarded the seventeen-year-old with unconcealed distaste, which made her flinch and blush crimson, "and come back here? We'll go to a coffee shop nearby. I'd like to have a talk." She added when Shouji turned toward the entrance to Mariko's room, "And please, don't wake my daughter." She gave no reason... but from the girl's expression, pale even in the dim light, she understood.

"I'll... be right back," Shouji mumbled and walked into the room with her tail between her legs.

Madoka returned to the living room, picked up her bag, and waited for the brown-haired girl at the door. A few minutes later, the brat emerged, her face as uneasy as ever. Neither muttering even a word, they left the apartment, took the elevator down to the lobby, and walked out the automatic sliding doors of Kanagawa Place. When they made a left turn immediately afterwards, they found themselves in front of a small but nicely decorated coffee shop, which was mounted with a glaring neon sign that read "_Starbrooks_". This place was where Madoka stopped by every morning, sat down, and blissfully enjoyed the exquisite smoothness of the shop's specialty drink before she subjected herself to the merciless grinding machine that was her job.

"Misono-san!" the shop owner, a plump woman who was about half a dozen years older than Madoka, exclaimed the moment she pushed open the glass door. "What are you doing here at this time?" She glanced at her wristwatch. "When I'm about to close down, no less!" The other employees, all of whom Madoka had known for the last ten years, stopped their cleaning and moping and looked at her, appearing equally surprised. Some raised their hands and waved to her. She addressed them each with a warm smile before she turned to the owner.

"I'm sorry, Inoue-san," Madoka said, feeling a little bit more peaceful under the cool light cascading down from the halogen tubes hanging on the shop's ceiling. The sight of this familiar place and those familiar faces always had a soothing effect on her. "I just need a place to sit down and discuss something with my companion. It won't take long. Can you... settle us down somewhere quiet?"

Inoue-san arched an eyebrow at her questioningly, but when the woman received no answer in return, she nodded and gestured her hand toward a corner in the back of the shop, where a table just for two sat solitarily without any attendants hovering nearby. And if Inoue Ritsuko was the woman Madoka had known all these years, she would make sure that no one would come within twenty feet of that table while they were talking.

"Do you want something to drink, Misono-san?" the shop owner inquired.

"Just a cup of tea, thanks," Madoka answered.

"Kiddo?" Inoue-san glanced at Shouji, who was standing at the threshold and looking at the interior of the shop with troubled eyes.

"Uh, I'd like a glass of water, I think," the brown-haired girl muttered uneasily, sweat beading on her forehead despite the cold weather.

"Okay." The plump shop owner nodded and smiled.

Under the bewildered gazes of the shop's employees, she proceeded to the corner quietly with the seventeen-year-old brat following on her heels. Once they had settled down, one facing the other across the table, she realized that Shouji was being frightened out of her wits. Perhaps it was Madoka's cold, sharp stare. Perhaps it was the unfamiliar surrounding. Or perhaps it was both, she didn't really care. Although, she reckoned, it was a good thing that the kid had already been pushed out of balance. The more scared Shouji was, the easier it would be for Madoka to achieve her purpose.

"Oba-san..." the brat began.

_"Misono-san,"_ Madoka corrected, her voice cold and hard. The kid's complexion went even paler than the moon shining bright beyond the glass window. Outside, the empty alley it looked over appeared decidedly dark and ominous.

"Misono-san," Shouji managed in the end, "you came back early." Then she stopped. Madoka suspected that it wasn't what the girl intended to say at all.

"Isn't that a good thing?" she said. "If I hadn't, I would never have known what kind of _despicable_ acts you two were engaging in when I was away." Her voice was low lest it carry to the wrong ears, but she made sure that it conveyed her displeasure and anger as best it could. Shouji's involuntary wince was proof that Madoka had succeeded.

Silence ensued while the brat dropped her gaze to her lap and started plucking at her sweater.

"Refreshments, anybody?" said the kind-faced Inoue Ritsuko, who was approaching with a tray in her hands. With a grace that not many people would expect from her slightly stocky figure, the woman put down a cup of tea in front of Madoka, a glass of water in front of Shouji An, and a dish of cookies in the middle of the table. After that, she silently retreated toward the register, from where sometimes she would look in their direction with a face painted by sheer curiosity. Of course, anyone would wonder why Madoka wasn't home at this moment to care for her paraplegic daughter, but here, talking to a stranger who seemed to be trying to shrink herself on her seat.

"Did your father know of this?" Madoka asked, her voice growing no warmer, her tone no less sharp.

"He doesn't," Shouji replied, eyes still on her lap.

"Go figures," Madoka said. "I can't imagine any parent would give his child permission to..." she paused, trying to find a way to state the fact in an acceptable manner. She couldn't find any, as the mere recollection of what she had seen in Mariko's room made the flame of anger roar from the pit of her stomach. Madoka managed to keep her hands on the table, but she failed to stop them from trembling. The brat in front of her noticed, and her face went even paler than before, if that was possible. Yet... a light of defiance shone in her deep blue eyes. That, of course, did nothing to bring peace to Madoka's lethal mood.

"Who started it?" she demanded.

Shouji gave her an odd look, remained quiet for a few seconds, then spoke up, "I did."

Unable to restrain her anger, Madoka reached across the table and slapped the insolent brat. The sound of her hand landing on Shouji's cheek suddenly turn the atmosphere of coffee shop, which was extremely noisy just a second ago with people cleaning up every corner except theirs, into that of a graveyard in the dead of night. She wasn't looking, so she didn't know whether everybody in the shop was looking at them. Yet, she knew for a certainty that they were. She could _feel_ their questioning eyes on her. She could almost _hear_ the thoughts revolving in their heads. Only fleetingly did she consider explaining this episode of drama to them afterwards.

"How dare you?" Madoka hissed while the seventeen-year-old stared ahead, her eyes widened in shock, her right cheek imprinted with a large reddening mark in the shape of a hand. "Don't you have anything better to do than dragging my daughter along your twisted path? Why didn't you keep your sick obsession to yourself and leave Mariko alone?"

"Sick obsession?" Shouji repeated, her words holding no heat even after being struck. Her voice, quiet and low, contained only agony and sadness. "What's so sick about me loving her?" If she thought she could invoke Madoka's sympathy, though, she was dead wrong. All Madoka ever harbored toward her was hostility and distaste.

"The fact that you are of the same gender, is there anything else?" Madoka snapped. "Normal girls don't go after each other like dogs in heat." She gave the seventeen-year-old a disgusted look. "If you can't understand something simple as that, you're much more of a dimwit than I expected."

"You mean you'll never approve unless Mariko's partner is a man?" If Shouji was offended, she hid it well. Strangely enough, however, apprehension was slowly withdrawing from her like a tide ebbing from the beach, leaving behind a sense of composure that was forming across her face. Fear was suddenly nowhere to be seen in the brat's blue eyes, which were now gazing at Madoka with a feeling that she could only name... pityandexasperation. Madoka's hand itched to slap that look off Shouji's face, but she stopped herself in time. It was shameful enough for to have hit the kid once, and she was already regretting it for having let her temper get the better of her, so she wasn't going to make the same mistake again.

But oh Gods... how much she wanted to...

"Isn't it obvious?" Madoka answered roughly.

"Why does it have to be a guy, Misono-san?" the seventeen-year-old said, her voice dead serious. "What is it that he can give her that I cannot?"

"Stability!" Madoka declared. "Look at you, you're just a brat who has to rely on her father's money to live. She needs a man who can support her financially for the rest of her life."

"Men aren't the only ones who can do that," Shouji countered. "You're right. I currently don't have a yen that I can call my own, but it's not going to stay that way forever. After I've earned my degree, I will find a job and make enough money to provide for both of us." She locked eyes with Madoka, her expression growing firm. "You are no more of a man than I am, Misono-san, yet weren't you the person who has raised Mariko to be the respectable woman she is today? You of all people should know that not many men have the willpower and the patience to accomplish what you've spent the last ten years doing."

Words died in Madoka's throat.

"I'm aware that we being together will turn us into the target of people who despise what they refuse to understand," there wasn't a hint of mockery in the seventeen-year-old's tone, yet it still made Madoka's blood boil, "but Mariko and I are willing to take the risk. As long as she still loves me..."

"She doesn't! No matter what you may choose to believe, she doesn't love you!" Madoka broke in scathingly. Shouji An was nothing but a seventeen-year-old who knew nothing about the world. Madoka surely wasn't going to let the girl bandy words with her and win. Especially not when the stake was the future happiness of her daughter. "Because of her condition, she's emotionally insecure and vulnerable to your advances. That's how you've managed to intrude so deeply into her life!" Her voice's loudness started to grow out of control. "When Mariko regains the ability to walk, she'll realize that she has options! She'll see that she can find a man who will..."

"Are you even aware of what you're saying, Misono-san?" The brown-haired girl stared at her in utmost incredulity.

"What?" Madoka fired back, her voice echoing loudly in the shop.

"You're her mother, yet you don't understand her at all," the brat challenged. "Mariko has never been so weak-willed she has to cling to someone else for emotional comfort!" Her words were sharp, her eyes burning, and her fists clenching atop the table. Anybody would have agreed that Shouji An had taken what Madoka said as a personal insult. "Options _when_ she can walk again? Are you serious? Mariko has _always_ had options. Or do you honestly believe that she can't find a man for her romantic interest because she's on a wheelchair? You have no faith, don't you? You think that there's no one on Earth who would choose your daughter if they knew they would have to care for her for the rest of her life the way you did during the last ten years, don't you?" Shouji shook her head in disappointment. "Why don't you ask yourself whether you want Mariko in the care of someone who can only love her when she's able to walk?"

Madoka's blood ran cold. Yet, after a while, the flames of anger once again raged in her heart.

Abruptly standing up, Madoka grabbed her cup of tea and hurled its content at the seventeen-year-old's face. Afterwards, she slammed the cup upon the table and shrieked, "I will give you your last warning, Shouji-san. Do not come near my daughter ever again. If you do, I'll call the police!"

Then she hurried toward the entrance, not bothering to say goodbye to her friend Inoue Ritsuko, whose face was strangely unreadable as she looked at Madoka storming out of her shop.

* * *

Slipping away from the backdoor of the Starbrooks coffee shop, Shouji Ichitaka smiled softly to himself. Finally, he had found a way to deliver his Gods-damned daughter into Minamoto Iriya's hands without having to deal with the brat's bodyguard. Who could have thought that he could have missed the solution to his dilemma had he given up and gone home a couple of hours ago? It was providence, he was sure. Silently, he offered a prayer as his token of gratitude to all the powers that were then slipped into the darkness under the vast heavens.

* * *

Not really paying attention to the cool liquid that was dripping from her face, Shouji An merely stared forward at the empty chair left by Misono Madoka, mother to the woman she loved. Her head was void of thoughts and her hearts, emotions. She felt dazed. She felt stunned. She felt as if the world was spinning rapidly around her. She thought she was about to throw up. 

"Are you okay, kiddo?" a female voice said and made An raise her head. The woman who had greeted Madoka when they entered the shop was standing by the table, her hand holding a clean towel, her round face radiating warmth and kindness. Not asking for An's permission, Inoue-san, she seemed to remember that it was what Madoka had called the woman, bent over and gently dabbed the fuzzy cloth at An's face. "I'm sorry Misono-san... did this to you." An stared. It had been years since her mom died... but if that blessed lady was still living today, she would look at An with the same motherly expression. She felt moisture gathering in her eyes.

"I'm... fine," she lied.

"I heard her name you Shouji-san," Inoue-san continued as she sat down on the other chair. "Is your given name An, by any chance?"

"How... do you know?" She went wide-eyed at the kind-faced lady.

"I heard about you from Misono-san's daughter," she explained. "I visited her frequently when her mom's off to work, you see."

"Ah," was the only response An could come up with.

"You are... Mariko's girlfriend, weren't you?" Inoue-san said quietly, her hands folded on the table's top. "I'm sorry I overheard your conversation... but Misono-san's voice was very loud toward the end." She grimaced.

"Yes." An nodded, uncertain as to what was going to happen. Based on the friendly manner with which they treated each other, this woman... seemed to be Misono Madoka's close acquaintance. Did they... happen to share the same view about her and Mariko's relationship, too? She eyed the glassful of water standing near Inoue-san's hands uneasily. Being splashed with liquid once this evening was more than enough. She wondered if she should just excuse herself and leave before the shop owner had a chance to reach for the glass.

"Don't give up."

"I beg your pardon?" An's head snapped up. That wasn't what she expected to hear.

"No matter what happens, kiddo, don't give up," Inoue-san repeated gently. "Misono-san is a tough nut to crack, but don't let her intimidate you."

"Why are you telling me this?" An asked, surprised. "I thought you were... her friend."

"I am." The plump woman gave her a rueful smile. "But that doesn't mean that I agreed with whatever she said. She was very... unpleasant to you, I must admit."

"It's... okay," An muttered. "I kinda expected it from the very beginning. I knew she wouldn't accept me. Didn't know that it would have gone... so badly, though." The more she talked, the more bitter her voice grew. So much for trying to keep their relationship in the dark. So much for waiting for a convenient opportunity to tell Madoka. So much for wanting to spend the last two weeks with Mariko in happiness before she flew away to America and left An back here for one full, torturous year.

A tear leaked from a corner of her eyes and rolled off her cheeks. Before she knew, she was already sobbing uncontrollably in her hands. How was she supposed to live through the next two weeks, during which she couldn't even see Mariko's face? This... was not meant to happen.

At that moment, her cell phone suddenly rang from within her pants' pocket. The ring tone identified the caller as her beloved girlfriend. Wiping her tears with the sleeve of her sweater, she pulled the device out and answered the call.

* * *

"Where did you go in the middle of the night, An?" Misono Mariko, sitting on the bed with the blanket wreathing around her body, asked worriedly when the door to her room opened. To her shock, the one who entered was not the girl who had shared her bed just a couple of hours ago before she fell asleep, but her mother, Misono Madoka. She was standing at the threshold, face grim, lips thinned, eyes filled with unspeakable rage. 

A terrible chill wrecked Mariko's body apart. When did her mom return? Was she the reason to An's sudden disappearance? What did she do with her?

"She went home," her mom announced frostily. "And she's not going to see you ever again. I'll make sure of that. Goodnight, Mariko."

Madoka slammed the door shut.

Trembling, Mariko reached for her cell phone and dialed her girlfriend's numbers.

"Mariko?" An's voice cracked painfully on the other side of the line. The high school freshman spoke only one word... yet it was more than enough for Mariko to realize that An had been crying before she picked up the phone. She sensed her heart clench inside her chest. An wasn't a girl who shed her tears easily. Madoka must have done something terrible to the girl to have made her cry like this.

"Where are you, An?" she asked anxiously, hand gripping her mobile wireless. "Are you okay?"

"I'm... in the Starbrooks coffee near your house," her girlfriend answered with the same tattered voice. "And... I'm okay."

Mariko heaved a sigh of relief. She knew everybody in that coffee shop to be decent, hardworking people, especially Inoue Ritsuko-san the owner, who always bought Mariko something every time she visited. If An was there with them at the moment, she should be in good hands.

"What happened?"

There was a moment of silence on the phone before the Touyou Eiwa freshman's voice returned, "When some strange noise in the house woke me up in the middle of the night, I left the room to check it out. Then... I saw your mom. She asked me to go with her to the coffee shop and have a talk." An stopped abruptly.

"Tell me everything, An, please," Mariko urged.

Her girlfriend complied.

"I'm sorry about what she said," Mariko said quietly afterwards as agony and disappointment surged in her every vein. She never imagined that something so... hurtful could come from the mouth of Misono Madoka, the mother she so dearly cherished. Neither did she expect the situation to have deteriorated this badly just two weeks before her flight.

"It isn't your fault," the high school freshman replied. "It's mine. I said something terrible to your mom. I made her angry. If I hadn't lost my head, perhaps there was a chance that I could persuade her. But I just had to screw everything up." She sighed deeply afterwards, sounding on the verge of tears again.

"An," Mariko called her lover's name softly. "Will you listen to my selfish request?"

"Sure." Somehow, Mariko detected fear in that one single word. Maybe An was afraid that Mariko was proposing a break-up. She'd be surprised.

"I know it's not right doing it over the phone, especially under this circumstance, but I don't think I will ever get the chance to see you face to face anymore," Mariko murmured, sensing her heart picking up the pace. "But when I come back here from the States, no matter the result of my treatment, will you... marry me?"

Deafening silence followed.

A few years back, when the Civil Rights groups heavily pressured the government to follow the example of other progressive countries in the world, the latter had no choice but to acquiesce to the former's demands. That had been when the name and the benefits of _"marriage"_ were extended to virtually all citizens regardless of the gender of the person they chose for a partner. Madoka didn't sit very well with that. She thought of the government as spineless and always showed her disgust whenever the TV or the newspaper mentioned the issue.

"You don't want to, An?" she continued after several minutes of no reply from the one she loved.

"Of course I do!" An's voice echoed through the phone, mingling with wonder and disbelief. "That's what I've always wished for. But... but... your mom..."

"Has no say over this matter," Mariko assured her. "I'm an adult, and I have the right to choose my life partner. And that person... is you, An." The threat Madoka delivered An was empty and she knew it. The police couldn't do a thing unless they had Mariko's approval, which they were never going to get.

"It's not that, Mariko," An's voice said. "Are you aware of the effect this would have on your mom?"

"I know it'll break her heart," Mariko admitted, sighing.

"Then why...?"

"What is the other alternative? Breaking _your_ heart _and_ _mine_ by abandoning you? That's one decision I can't make. I simply can't imagine spending the rest of my life that way, An."

"Why are you telling me this, Mariko? Why did you ask me to marry you out of the blue?"

"Because I want you to know that no matter what happens, no matter how hard my mother tries to take you away from me, I will never stop loving you or wanting to stay by your side," she whispered. "So don't be afraid, ne."

"Mariko..." An sobbed on the other side of the phone.

Mariko was eternally grateful to Madoka for having given life to her, loving her, and caring for her during the last ten years. Yet... that fact didn't mean that Mariko was willing to sacrifice her love for An just because her mom failed to understand that the Touyou Eiwa freshman held in her hands Mariko's heart. Besides, it wasn't as if she were going to leave Madoka for good in any case. Mariko was more than determined to become the bridge that brought her mom and An together. She refused to believe she couldn't make Madoka change her mind. In fact, she fully intended to achieve her goal during the time she was going to spend in America. If the Gods were willing, a year from now, the three of them would be able to live happily under the same roof.

She told her girlfriend as much.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Mariko?" An asked, her voice trembling more violently than ever. "If worse comes to worst, the relationship between you and your mom would be destroyed."

"I... am willing to take that risk," Mariko said. "I love you too much to live without you now, An."

"Same with me... Mariko..."

"Then wait for me?" she said, sensing tears welling in her eyes, hearing her voice break. "Just one year, and I'll be back to where you are. Then I will never leave you ever again. I promise."

* * *

"Did something good happen?" Inoue Ritsuko observed while settling down again upon the chair opposite that of the brown-haired girl, who had just hung up. She had inconspicuously taken her leave when she realized that the person who called the poor kid was none other than Misono Madoka's daughter so that they could have a moment together. "You seemed much happier than before you picked up the phone, kiddo." That was an understatement, actually. Ritsuko would wager all the money in her safe that if she were to give the tomboy all the gold in the world, she still wouldn't be able to produce such a wondrous expression on the girl's face. 

"Mariko... she... proposed to me," Shouji An said, her wet blue eyes filled with an indescribable joy no sunlight could possibly outshine. "She said she would like to marry me when she gets back from the U.S." As soon as she was done, she gave a violent start and took up a study of her sweater. An probably didn't know it herself why she disclosed something so personal to someone she barely knew for fifteen minutes.

"Ah! I'm so glad for you!" Ritsuko exclaimed, astonished.

"Thank you," An murmured gratefully.

_'The Misono kid was bold, gotta give her that,'_ Ritsuko mused to herself. She had always thought that Mariko was the kind of character who was easily influenced by her parent, who worshipped her mother and would never even think of doing something that the latter didn't wish her to. Turned out that it was a terrible misconception. Misono Mariko, based on what Ritsuko just heard from the teenager Shouji An, was steel hidden under a layer of cloth. In that, she resembled Inoue Mizuki, Ritsuko's child.

Misono Madoka was never aware... but the truth was... Mizuki was now married to her childhood friend, a young woman whom she had known her entire life. They lived in the same neighborhood, they went to the same schools, they participated in the same club, and they found jobs in the same company after graduating from college. Of course, Ritsuko, like any parents, had the surprise of her life when her daughter and her friend came back home one day to ask for her blessing. Ritsuko reacted very violently at first and refused to give the children what they wanted. As a result, she was infuriated when the two of them went ahead and married each other without her approval. Yet... in time, her anger waned, and she learned to accept the fact that one didn't have to be a man to make Mizuki happy. They reconciled... and Ritsuko even grew to love the person her daughter had chosen the way she loved the latter. Now, they would return every weekend to pay her a visit, take her out shopping, and spend their precious family time together.

Fully aware of Misono Madoka's feelings toward such a touchy issue, Ritsuko never discussed it with the woman. She didn't hate the middle-aged office lady for that, though. Despite being sadly mistaken about _"how the world should be",_ as Madoka would say in her own words, she was one of the most respectable parent that a kid could possibly want, and Ritsuko admired her for it. Besides, Ritsuko knew what the other woman was going through, having walked that road herself, so she sympathized with Madoka and hoped that her friend would soon realize that it was always a mistake trying to decide whom her daughter could love.

"Well now, since everything seems to be working out alright for you, why don't we do a little bit of celebration before I close down? Would you like my shop's specialty cake, kiddo? On the house, of course." She gave An a smile and prayed with all her might that the Gods above would grant this poor girl sitting in front of her the abundant happiness that they had bestowed upon her own kid.

* * *

"So, that's what happened," Mitsuki Kanae concluded and drank the rest of her orange juice. It was a beautiful Monday afternoon, in which she didn't have to go to school due to a national holiday, and she was sitting at a table for two in a Chinese restaurant in Shimokitazawa Mall. Opposite her was Kozuka Hiroyuki, the once captain of the Crimson Knights in The World, a lean young man with short straight hair and a face that demonstrated very well what kind of personality he had. He wasn't exactly hunk-handsome , yet Kanae was willing to bet that the girls in her class, who spent most of their time dreaming of meeting a mature and reliable guy, would totally fawn over Hiroyuki. His dark eyes were sharp, his expression solemn, his mouth seldom _not_ thinned in a straight line, and his square jaw usually set with grim determination. _'Perfect for military recruitment,'_ she thought. 

Since their unusual encounter at Hiroyuki's par-time job two weeks ago, Kanae had been visiting the video store almost every afternoon after class. One reason was that the place had a great collection of movies, many of which she never watched. The other reason, well, she was bored, and Hiroyuki was nearby and... convenient. Despite his seemingly dry appearance, he was actually an interesting man. Having worked for the video store for the last five years or so, he had met many kinds of people and accrued a staggering amount of funny anecdotes, which he freely shared with her and made her laugh.

Well... sure, they didn't really have good history with each other in The World, and more often than not their differences in personal belief pitched them against each other in fierce debates in which neither wanted to yield. Sure, sometimes she experienced a very strong urge to look for something sharp – or blunt, depending on how murderous she was feeling at that moment – and hit him with it. Yet, for some unknown reason she was rather... fond of the man's stubbornness, rigidity, and antiquated idea of honor and chivalry. To her... Hiroyuki was a refreshing change. She had to admit that if she had a choice, she would rather hang out with him instead of her classmates.

_'Heck, who would want to do that with those mindless boys and girls?'_ she mused.

"I used to think that Lady Subaru's feelings toward Tsukasa would chance into friendship now that she knew that _'he'_ was a girl in reality..." he paused and looked at his cup of black coffee, then continued, "so I never expected her to..." He stopped and sighed, appearing rather depressed.

Kanae knew why. It wasn't difficult at all, really, to know what kind of feelings Kozuka Hiroyuki harbored toward his once liege lady in The World. Personally, Kanae thought that although those bordered on the romantic, they leaned more toward idolization and respect. The news that the once leader of the Crimson Knights had found her happiness else where should be hurting him a little bit... but the pain should go away soon. It wasn't as though the man was head over heels in love the way Mariko and An were anyways.

"But in any case, if what you said were true..." Hiroyuki said after a while.

"It is true," Kanae interjected.

"If what you said were true," the twenty-three-year-old repeated, his dark eyes twinkling. Sometimes Kanae was under the impression that the man liked to poke fun at her both out of meanness and amusement. She suspected that the former was his main motivation, though. But oh well, it wasn't as though she didn't give him hell during the last two weeks with her cruel taunts and jokes. "Then Lady Subaru is in a tight spot right now."

"Right." She nodded. "Seems to me that her mom's serious about the whole business." Today was Madoka's last day at work. According to what Mariko told her on the phone earlier this morning, Madoka was going there to submit her resignation letter and bring her belongings home. Technically she didn't have to do that until the day before she boarded the plan with her daughter, but she did it nevertheless. Mariko said her mom claimed that she wanted to have enough time to prepare for the upcoming trip. Kanae knew better than that. The office lady only stayed home because she needed to check on her daughter and made sure that Shouji An wouldn't have a chance to get near her girlfriend, that was it. Misono Madoka was determined to destroy her daughter's happiness, it would seem.

However, for all her tenacity, Misono Madoka made one mistake. When she went to work this morning, she had entrusted Mariko to her old friend Inoue Ritsuko, owner of the Starbrooks Coffee Shop next door to the Kanagawa Place building. If Madoka thought that in so doing, she could prevent Mariko and An from seeing each other, she was dead wrong. As soon as she left, the shop owner phoned the high school freshman and even arranged a small room in her shop so that the lovebirds could spend quality time in private. If the Gods indeed existed, this probably was their doing. Now if they would just brainwash Mariko's mother so that the woman could accept An, Kanae would seriously consider paying a visit to her local Shinto shrine every weekend.

"Mitsuki," Hiroyuki said suddenly. Despite the fact that she had insisted him to call her Kanae, the man always addressed her with her family name for some reason. After a while, Kanae gave up and let him call her however he wanted.

"What?"

"I'm going to see Lady Subaru's mom. Want to accompany me?"

Kanae blinked. "Why?"

"I'm going to talk her into accepting Lady Subaru's relationship," he declared, his voice firm, his eyes determined.

"Well, I know you are eager to help but... what gave you the notion that Misono Madoka is going to listen to a complete stranger?" Kanae asked curiously.

"Nothing." The man shrugged. "I'm just more of a _"Do-it"_ kind of person. Rather than sitting here and pray, I like to take matters into my own hands and deal with them. Besides, you're her friend, Mitsuki. Do you really want to stay on the sideline and watch Lady Subaru suffer?"

"No," Kanae answered immediately.

"Good, then come with me. We're going to change Misono-san's mind."

Peering at the tall, lean man sitting opposite her, Kanae couldn't help but wonder as to where the man found his confidence. The answer came to her in a flash. Of course, Kozuka Hiroyuki was terrifyingly similar to Misono Madoka in some aspects. They both adored Misono Mariko. They both tried to monopolize her, and in a way, they both attempted to _choose_ whom she should be acquainted with regardless of what she decided. If there was one person in this world who understood Madoka, it would be none other than Hiroyuki. That was why the man seemed so certain that he could persuade the stubborn woman.

Kanae only prayed that they were going to succeed.

* * *

Misono Madoka was sitting at her desk, the three sides of which were walled by thick plastic screens that separated her from the rest of her coworkers, and trying to finish her final share of paperwork when her monitor flashed to life and displayed the dour, triangular face of a young woman. Although she had no idea who this stranger was, she recognized the background behind her back, though. It was, without a doubt, the wall behind the reception desk on the lobby of the Hakusensha building. She walked past it every day. 

"Misono-san, I presume?" the woman inquired, her voice sourer than vinegar and barely more enjoyable than the sound of fingernails scratching on a chalk board. Madoka could only wonder how such a person as unfriendly as the one on the screen could be appointed a receptionist post. She would most likely chase all the visitors away the moment she opened her mouth and spoke. Compared to her, the lively young man who worked in the evening shift, who always had a smile on his face as soon as he saw anybody, was much more suitable for the job.

"Yes," she answered. "How may I help you?"

"You have a visitor, ma'am. Shall I send him up to your floor?"

Madoka frowned. Ever since she started working here, she had never had a visitor. She had no living relatives, and her in-laws, an old couple who didn't want anything to do with her and her paraplegic daughter, hadn't given her a phone call or a letter in years. Who could it be? And why did it have to be now, on the very day she handed in her resignation letter?

"Did he give a name?"

"Yes." The receptionist nodded. "He said his name was Shouji Ichitaka. Plus, he claimed to be the father of a girl you know."

Madoka's hands tightened into fists. What in Heaven's name is Shouji An's father doing in her workplace? Was it because of what happened between the brat and Madoka yesterday? Did he come here to complain, or beg for Madoka's acceptance on his daughter's behalf? Madoka surely wasn't going to give him a chance.

She was about to tell the receptionist to send the man away when a different name popped up in her head and made all her movements freeze. Shouji Ichitaka, she realized, was not what Shouji An's current guardian called himself. According to her daughter, the brat was living in the care of a novelist named Sakuma Ryo, who adopted her to... _'Save her from an abusive biological father,'_ she finished mentally and very nearly gasped aloud. She was offended by Shouji An's very existence, but the maternal side of her felt pretty much the same way about the fact that the girl had been subjected to all sorts of verbal and physical violence by a beast clothed in a man's skin. What could that same beast, whom the court forbade to go near his daughter, possibly want with Madoka?

"Send him away! Now! Call the security if he refuses to leave!" Madoka commanded, her stomach roiling with disgust.

The receptionist blinked in surprise. "Pardon me, Misono-san, but the visitor also claimed that you would be interested in what he had to offer. Oh, and he gave me a piece of paper and asked me to fax it over. Will you accept it?"

Her eyebrows knitting in confusion, Madoka stared at her monitor for a full minute before she nodded and said in a dry voice, "Yes, please."

Thirty seconds barely passed before her fax machine spat out a sheet of paper filled with lines of characters written in a crude and unruly penmanship. When she finished reading the thing, her heart was pounding madly in her chest. Quickly rearranging the stuff on her desk, she stood up, grabbed her coat, and walked hurriedly toward the elevator. The man was right; Madoka was definitely interested in what he had to say. Shouji Ichitaka just proposed to solve her dilemma, after all.

* * *

Shouji An was sitting on a small couch in a small and scarcely furnished room, which the employees of Starbrooks Coffee Shop went in during break time to relax before they continued working, which was empty right now except for her and the young woman nestled in her arms, when her cell phone decided to ring and disturbed their quiet time together. Grimacing in irritation amidst Mariko's melodious and crystalline laughter, An pulled out the device from her coat pocket and attempted to turn it off. She only had a little less than four hours to spend with her girlfriend before Madoka returned and brought her home, so she really couldn't afford any kind of distraction now. Before she could press on the power key of the phone, however, her eyes fell upon the LCD screen and found a set of numbers that she was intimately familiar with. A lump of something rose in her throat and nearly suffocated her. 

Staring at the small screen the way a fox would a hunter's rifle, ears not exactly registering the ring tone, An felt herself reeling into the realm of her memories, back to her life's darkest days, which was triggered by her mom's death. Her reverie was so strong, so engrossing, and at the same time so terrifying that only a few minutes after the phone had stopped ringing could An snap out of it and found her arms trembling slightly around the woman she loved.

"Is there something wrong, An?" Mariko asked.

Before An could answer, though, her wireless rang one more time and then went silent, indicating that a message for her has arrived. Truth be told, the only thing she wanted to do at that moment was to throw the phone into the trash basket and pretended the thing never existed... yet her gut was telling her that there was a reason why that message was sent to her, and that unless she opened it, she would regret it for the rest of her life.

She decided to be brave and view the message.

When she was done reading the words, she felt as if life had been sucked out of her. Her whole body went cold.

"An, you looked so pale," her girlfriend said worriedly. "What happened?"

"Nothing much," she answered. "A friend left a message and told me to call her back. She wanted to ask me a few questions about the homework we're going to turn in tomorrow." She had no clue how she could sound so calm, how her voice didn't tremble, and how her body wasn't shaking, while fear surged violently along her every nerve. She only hoped that her face didn't belie her true emotions. It would not do for Mariko to realize that An was lying. It would not do for Mariko to know what was going on.

"Ah," Mariko said, suspicion evident on her face. Still, she only fell silent afterwards, her amber eyes intent on An as though urging her to tell the young woman the truth.

"I... I'm going to call my friend," An muttered uneasily. "I'll be back in a bit." She carefully untangled herself from her sweetheart and put the latter onto the sofa. Then she stood up and walked toward the door to the room. Before she could leave, though, a strange feeling rose in her heart and forced her to take one look at the blue-haired woman, who was gazing worriedly and longingly at her. An walked back to her girlfriend, placed a soft kiss on her lips, spun on her heels, and walked hurriedly out of the room.

Treading along the small, empty hallway leading toward the backdoor of the coffee shop, An wondered fleetingly whether she would be able to see Mariko ever again.

* * *

"Misono-san isn't here?" Kozuka Hiroyuki blinked at the grim-faced woman sitting at the humongous reception desk in the lobby of the Hakusensha building. "Did she go home?" Next to him, the fifteen-year-old Mitsuki Kanae was standing very still, her eyes, which were glued at the polished granite wall behind the receptionist back, telling him just how disappointed... and relieved she was feeling at the moment. Of course, eager to help Lady Subaru and her friend as she was, a teenager like her couldn't help but be daunted by the task of facing an adult who, apparently, didn't care much for reasons. 

"I don't know," answered the woman with the sour voice. She seemed to be straining herself to remain civil to the two people standing in front of her desk. Not that her attitude had been much better when they first showed up, though. While normal receptionists would flash welcoming smiles and gush out greetings at their guests, this one had simply raised an eyebrow at him and Mitsuki before asking them in a not-quite-polite-but-not-exactly-rude-either tone whether they had any business with Hakusensha.

Hiroyuki frowned. He terribly disliked those who simply couldn't do the job that they were expected to. While he was still the Captain of the Knights in The World, he did everything in his power to enforce discipline and make sure that such people were properly straightened up. He suspected that unless the higher-ups of Hakusensha were a bunch of incompetents, this woman was in for a rude awakening very soon.

He sighed. Since the receptionist appeared to be quite insistent on being uncooperative, he guessed there was nothing he could do.

"Let's go, Mitsuki," he said to the fifteen-year-old. "It's better to come straight to Misono-san's house." Maybe he should call in later to file a complaint against this unresponsive receptionist.

"Sure." The dark-haired girl nodded. The grim-faced woman seemed infinitely relieved.

"Excuse me, young man," a warm, friendly voice spoke behind Hiroyuki. As he and his companion turned around, he found himself looking down at a gray-haired lady who stood a head shorter than him. The newcomer, whose elderly face brimmed with the same kindness that he used to see on that of his late grandmother, was looking at him and Mitsuki both with a smile on her lips. Her eyes and facial expression, surprisingly, reflected the wisdom and clarity of a mind age hadn't managed to touch.

"Yes, ma'am?" Hiroyuki bowed to the elderly lady with respect. Mitsuki Kanae did the same.

"You were looking for Misono Madoka-san?"

"Yes." Hiroyuki replied, his eyes finding the nametag on the elderly lady's Hakusensha uniform. It read Shimura Kikuko.

"I'm her supervisor," Shimura-san said. "I saw her leave just about two hours ago. She left her belonging here, so I would say that she hasn't come home yet. Although...," she gave her lips a thoughtful tap, "it's highly usually that she hasn't returned from her one-hour-break yet. Misono-san is a very hard worker, you see. We really regret her resigning today, but she's a mother, and she must do what she must for her daughter."

"Ah," Hiroyuki muttered noncommittally. Mitsuki Kanae, however, was looking uneasy again. He wouldn't blame her. In The World, she might be a Heavy Blade who spat in the face of danger, but in the real world, she was just a little girl.

"Do you have urgent business with Misono-san?" Shimura Kikuko-san looked at him and Mitsuki both.

"We do." Hiroyuki nodded. It was best that they find Misono Madoka and talk to her now, when lady Subaru wasn't nearby. He didn't want to discuss this matter at his former leader's house lest they put her in a tight spot. Being trapped between her friend and her family was by no means a good thing.

"Gotou-san," the supervisor turned to the rude receptionist, who was eyeing the former with great unease. Hiroyuki could guess what the woman was thinking. Since Shimura-san knew that they were looking for Misono Madoka, it was possible that she had been observing them all along. In that case, she must have witnessed the receptionist's behaviors.

"How may I help you, Shimura-san?" the woman squeaked.

"I believe that a man came for Misono-san, correct?" The firmness in the supervisor's voice, which wasn't there when she spoke to Hiroyuki, confirmed his suspicion. Yes, she saw everything alright. "What is his name?"

"Shouji Ichitaka, ma'am," the Gotou woman answered hastily.

"Shouji... Ichitaka?" Hiroyuki repeated, blinking. "Shouji?" He looked a question at Mitsuki Kanae, whose body had gone deathly still, whose face was as white as a sheet of paper. "What's wrong, Mitsuki?" he asked.

"That's... that's the name of An's dad!" she said, horror stark in her voice.

It took him one full minute before he could recall what kind of lowlife Tsukasa's father was. His fists clenched. What in goodness's name could that man want with Misono Madoka?

"We're leaving," he told his companion.

"What is the matter, young man?" Shimura-san said, her eyes regarding him curiously.

"Nothing, ma'am," he replied quickly. "Thank you for all your help." Then he grabbed his young companion by the wrist and dragged her out of the Hakusensha building.

When they got to the nearest empty alley, Hiroyuki let go of Kanae and commanded, "Call Lady Subaru, right now. Tell her to phone her mom and ask where she is."

"Okay." Hand trembling, the fifteen-year-old took out her wireless and punched the dials. Ten seconds later, she began to speak hurriedly, "Mariko? Hey, I have a favor to ask. Will you...? Eh, why do you ask me where An is? I thought she's been by your side since the morning." She paused, face growing paler by the minute. "She left... without telling you an hour ago and... hasn't come back or answered the phone? Even _Satou-san_ didn't see her leaving?"

A horrible feeling enveloped Hiroyuki's heart and froze his internal organs. According to what Mitsuki Kanae had been telling him about Tsukasa and Lady Subaru, they were inseparable when they were together. If the Wavemaster suddenly snuck away in such a stealthy manner that their _bodyguard_ didn't even notice... there had to be something wrong. And besides, he had a feeling it was no coincidence that Tsukasa went missing at the same time Misono Madoka did. Every fiber of his existence rang in alarm.

"Calm down, Mariko, I'm sure there's nothing wrong with her," Kanae said. She didn't sound sure at all. "I said calm down..." He sighed. The girl was in no position to tell other people to keep calm when she herself appeared to be on the verge of panic. This surely was going nowhere, he thought.

"Sorry, Mitsuki," Hiroyuki muttered as he snatched the phone from the junior high school student. "Lady Subaru? It's me, Silver Knight," he said into the device.

There was a moment of silence on the phone. "Silver Knight? You know Kanae offline?" She sounded shocked. He flashed his companion a look. Apparently the girl never told Lady Subaru that they had started hanging out with each other two weeks ago. To his surprise, the girl looked away, seemingly mightily embarrassed and muttering something under her breath.

"That's not important at the moment, Lady Subaru," he said. "Please, be quiet listen to what I have to say." He didn't like giving orders to the person who once commanded the whole Guild of Crimson Knights... but in this situation, in which the disappearance of her lover had taken away her composure, he had to overstep his bounds and take charge.

"Okay," Lady Subaru's voice answered.

"Mitsuki mentioned in passing once that the phone Tsukasa's carrying has a GPS device, right?" Kanae pounded a fist upon her palm.

"Yes." Kanae's phone didn't allow real-time video transmission, yet Hiroyuki knew that his former leader had to be looking the very same way the fifteen-year-old was at the moment. Under normal circumstances, he was sure that Lady Subaru would have remembered that locating the missing Wavemaster would be a piece of cake.

"Well then, I'm going to hang up now. After I do, I'd like you to first call An's adoptive father and tell him to look for Tsukasa. Oh, another thing, would you tell me your mother's phone number? I would like to talk to her," he added in the end as if an afterthought. His voice was perfectly guarded and neutral, so he didn't think that Lady Subaru would suspect that something wrong had happened to Misono Madoka.

"Is it about me and An?" the former Guild Master of the Crimson Knights asked quietly. "I thank you for your concern, but you don't have to do that, Silver Knight."

"Please, allow me to do something for you, my Lady," he insisted.

Another moment of silence came, then when Lady Subaru's voice returned, she told him her mother's number. After that, he hung up.

"Why didn't you tell her the truth?" Kanae asked, her dark eyes riveting on him.

"She doesn't need to know until we've learned where her mom is," he replied. "For all we know, Misono-san could be in her workplace right now." The last thing they wanted to do was scaring Lady Subaru even more by telling her that her mom had gone off with a shady characters like Shouji Ichitaka.

"You know what, you're awfully calm, Hiroyuki," Kanae said as she eyed him up and down as though she was seeing him for the first time in her life. "Very reliable, too." A smile crossed her lips.

Not knowing what to say to that, he gave back her phone, took out his own, and dialed Misono Madoka's phone numbers. When he hung up after the fifth redial, he saw in the fifteen-year-old's eyes the fear that must have been mirrored in his own.

* * *

Misono Madoka was sitting stiffly on a wooden chair, her hands tied by a rope behind her back, and feeling incredibly stupid beneath the tall roof of a large but empty warehouse. During the last ten years of her life, she constantly found herself weighing her every decision very thoroughly and carefully, as she knew that one wrong step would lead her and her dear daughter to their undoing. Yet, for the first time since her husband's death, she succumbed to a terrible folly that landed her right into the middle of a trap. Most ironic of all, she would have realized that she was walking into one had it not been for her hatred against Shouji An and her insecurity as to her daughter's future. She didn't know how Shouji Ichitaka learned of it... but the man was undoubtedly aware of her weakness, of which he had successfully taken advantage. 

Madoka scowled darkly at the unshaven man standing just a few feet away from her chair, his eyes glued at the entrance to the warehouse, his foot tapping impatiently on the ground. He looked every inch a thug.

"Shame on you, Misono Madoka, to have been deceived by such a man," she muttered under her breath.

Despite having warned Shouji An to stay away from her daughter, Madoka knew better than anyone that hers was an empty threat. Also, she realized that her control on her daughter's life was being weakened by the fact that in less than two weeks, they were going to fly to the U.S. and begin Mariko's treatment. Since the success rate was miraculously high, Madoka was sure that when they returned to Japan a year later, her daughter would have already regained the ability to walk. And once that happened... Mariko could do as she wished and toss all Madoka's advices out of the window. Of course, her daughter had always been a sweet kid who listened to and obeyed whatever Madoka said... but who knew what a young woman would do for love? What Madoka had planned to accomplish during the one year they were going to spend in California was trying to make her daughter forget about Shouji An. She had hoped to find the girl an upstanding Japanese husband there, too.

Yet, she had an inkling that she wasn't going to succeed. Perhaps that was because she knew how faithful and passionate her daughter was. If the one she truly loved was indeed Shouji An, it wouldn't matter how long she had to wait, she wasn't going to stop loving the damned brat and fall for someone else. It was the sole reason why Shouji Ichitaka's words were so tempting... why his offer was so appealing... and why Madoka had jumped head first down the cliff without so much as a second thought. She was desperate. She had hoped to believe that the man could get rid of her burden. And she was wrong.

The first thing that Shouji Ichitaka had done after meeting her in the Hakusensha Cafeteria was telling her that they couldn't possibly talk in such a crowded place and suggesting that they went out to another one that was more... private. In her desperate state, she had agreed without a second thought. When they arrived at an empty alley near her workplace just about five minutes later, Shouji chopped the edge of his large hand against the nape of her neck and knocked her unconscious. Even now, after the Gods only knew how long, it still hurt. Looking back, she couldn't help but curse herself yet again for being careless. She knew the man who had come for her was a rotten human being... yet she had dumped all caution down the drain as soon as she thought he could solve her problem.

He couldn't, she realized. Not with what he had in mind. It was a doomed plan to begin with.

"She's not coming," Madoka said suddenly. "Don't bother waiting."

"Oh?" Shouji Ichitaka turned to her, a sneer twisting his lips. "I beg to differ."

"Why do you think your daughter would do as you want just because you abducted me? I hate her, and she hates me. She's jump up and down in joy the moment I die. Give it up and..."

"Let you go?" Shouji broke in. "No chance in hell."

"Why not?" she argued. "What's the point of keeping me here when you know that I'm useless to you? If you release me, on the other hand, you can get out of this mess. I will even promise not to tell anybody about this and pretend it never happened."

"I keep you here because you will serve my purpose, woman." The man snickered. "The brat will come, I know it."

"How many times do I have to explain to you before you see that...?" Madoka said in exasperation.

"Oh don't waste your breath," Shouji Ichitaka cut in again. "I'm fully aware of the hostility between you two. And I don't doubt that she hates you as much as you hate her. But you don't know my daughter, woman. I do."

"What do you mean?" she demanded.

"She's the type that will do anything for the one she loves," he said. "And that's not going to change, ever. I'll let you know something about An. You see, I have always hated that brat since the day she was born. I tortured her anytime I wanted to, yet she never fought back. The brat simply sat there and took the blows almost _meekly_. Heck, she didn't even talk back to me even once. Another kid would have tried to run away or maybe planned to _kill_ me. But she _didn't_. Can you guess why?"

Madoka fell silent at the question.

"It was because of her mother!" Shouji laughed. "The brat loved her mother to the point of worship, and the woman loved _me_. Do you see the parallel, Misono Madoka?"

She did. She didn't want to, but she did. And it turned her stomach upside down.

"Same thing here," he continued. "Whether you refuse to see it or not, the brat loves your daughter. And for that, she'll do anything to keep _you_ alive. She'll come here, I can bet my life on it."

"What do you plan to do with her and me?" Madoka asked, trembling.

"Her? Well, I guess there's no harm in telling you." Malice flashed in his eyes. "I'll ship her to CC Corp. and let them turn her into a lab rat. As for you..." those eyes fell on her, sharp and harsh, "I'll kill you and dump your corpse in the Tokyo River."

Her heart stopped beating as she stared at him in fright.

"What? Do you really expect me to let you live and expose me to the police? Don't be naïve." The man drew from his trousers' pocket a thin object that was half a hand in length. As he pushed his finger on a button near one end, a small, gleaming blade swung out with a dry click. Even at a distance, Madoka could still see that the thing's edges were very sharp. Cold sweat trickled down her back. "But hey, don't worry. I'll make it as painless as I can, I promise."

"Let her go, dad," Shouji An's voice said briskly and made the man spin on his heel. The girl was standing at the entrance of the warehouse with a sweat-drenched face. She appeared to have run hard. "Don't drag other people into our family affair." Madoka didn't know whether she should feel relieved... or ashamed at the younger Shouji's appearance.

"And what makes you think you can give me orders, brat?" Shouji Ichitaka said menacingly, his knife turning in his hand and catching the light of the late noon sun pouring in from behind An's back.

"Because you need me to sign something, don't you?" the brown-haired girl said in resignation.

"How did you know that?" the man eyed at his daughter suspiciously.

"I heard you mention CC Corp," the girl replied. "Doesn't take a genius to figure out that you must have been under that Minamoto woman's order. There's only one thing that she wants from me."

"Sharp, aren't you?"

"Let Misono-san go, and I'll sign that contract for you." Madoka blinked. What Shouji Ichitaka told her earlier about his daughter seemed to be the truth. Shame overwhelmed relief. Could it be that Shouji An loved Madoka's daughter so much that she was willing to become a lab rat to save a woman who had insulted her, slapped her, and tried to separate her from the one she loved? She found her relief suffocated by shame.

"Why should I?" The man smirked dangerously.

"Because it'll do you no good." Deep blue eyes regarded the sharp blade calmly. "Think about it, dad. If she dies, the police will trace her death back to you sooner or later. Minamoto Iriya won't protect you."

The knife turned in the elder Shouji's hand again, only this time, it went much more slowly. The man, eyebrows burrowed together, lips compressed to a thin line, seemed to have been taken aback by his daughter's boldness. Madoka wasn't surprised that he did. After all, according to what he told her just a bit ago, Shouji An _never_ talked back. Obviously, nor did she make any sort of counter-demands when being threatened.

"On the other hand, you'll be free of the burden if you release her," Shouji An continued. "It's not like the cops would believe her if she came to them. Not if I signed the contract willingly." The girl turned to look at Madoka, her deep blue eyes tinged by sadness. "Besides, you know how she feels toward me, don't you, dad? I doubt she's going to do something like that for the one she hates." Blood rushed to Madoka's face. The teenager's words weren't too far off the mark.

"You're right," Shouji Ichitaka said finally. He pulled from his pocket a folded piece of paper and tossed it at his daughter's feet. "Sign it, and I'll let her go." Madoka's heart leapt up her throat.

Sighing, Shouji An fell down on one knee and unfolded the piece of paper quietly. Madoka opened her mouth... and then closed it firmly when she realized that she didn't know what to say.

"Done," An muttered once she had printed her personal seal at the bottom of the contract. "Now, uphold your end of the bargain, dad." The only emotion that Madoka could sense in the seventeen-year-old's voice was resignation. The only emotion that she could feel in her own heart was shame.

Not saying a word, Shouji Ichitaka cut the ropes tying Madoka's wrists, grabbed her collar, and roughly pulled her to her feet. Pain fastened around her neck and butterflies swarmed her vision.

"I don't think I'll ever find out what mom saw in you, dad," she heard Shouji An comment in a dark, disapproving tone.

The elder Shouji scoffed at his daughter's remark and turned his attention on Madoka. "You're lucky, woman. Now get out of my sight."

Trembling, Madoka walked slowly toward the entrance. When she reached it, Shouji An stepped aside to let her through.

"Please, tell Mariko I'm sorry," was what the girl whispered before Shouji Ichitaka roughly, pulled his daughter inside, pushed Madoka outside, and slammed the doors shut. She didn't believe she could ever forget the tears that were silently falling down the brown-haired girl's cheeks and the look of unspeakable agony that stained her deep blue eyes.

* * *

"Now what are you going to do, dad?" Shouji An asked quietly as she studied her biological father, whose attention was on the sheet of paper that he had yanked from her hand. Never in her life did she see him so happy. Never in her life did he disgust her more. To think that he would sink to this level. To think that he was willing to sell his own daughter to a company he knew would turn her into a lab rat. Yet, despising him as she was, she could hardly pay him more attention. Her heart right now was only occupied by regret and pain. Although she no longer cared what was going to happen to her, she sensed her heart clench when she thought of Misono Mariko, the woman who had proposed to her and promised to stay by her side until death tore them apart. 

Ichitaka lifted his eyes from the contract, folded it over, pushed it into his pocket, and said coldly, "I'm going to deliver you to Minamoto." He grabbed her by the wrist. Ignoring the tears soaking her cheeks and the jolt of pain caused by her father's iron grip, she let herself be dragged toward a rusty metal door at the far end of the warehouse, which creaked open at a push to reveal a small cargo truck parked just a few feet away.

_'So that's what he's going to use to ship me off to CC Corp,'_ she thought. Images of Mariko flashed again in her head. Her adoptive father had told her that the victims to the Revolutionists' experiments only suffered a short comatose and a long period of muscle disablement... yet An doubted those things would be all that would happen to her. She could only wonder if she was still alive one year from now, when her sweetheart returned from the United States. She hoped she was.

"Get in," Shouji Ichitaka growled. The man was standing at the rear of the truck, his hand holding the door to the cargo compartment. There was nothing inside. A lump rose in her throat. It was surely going to be one dark and bumpy ride. Since her biological father seemed more than eager to deliver his shipment, he was definitely going to drive as fast as he could. And that... ought to get An's stomach rolling during the trip.

"Where are we going?" she demanded.

"You don't need to know," the man answered harshly. _'He never changed,'_ she thought. His eyes still glowed with murderous intent whenever he looked at her. had it not been for the fact that he needed her alive for Minamoto Iriya's sake, he would have strangled her long since. Not that he hadn't tried to do that when she was still living with him... of course. Her hand rose to touch her throat. It had been several years at least... yet she wasn't going to forget the day he nearly killed her in his drunken state. The Gods must have tried to protect her that day... for the man suddenly tripped on an empty beer bottle, banged his head against the wall, and was knocked unconscious.

"Fine," An muttered and climbed inside the compartment. It was cold, and fright was all she felt as the darkness around her intensified and solidified, as the waning sunlight withdrew from the narrowing opening of the closing doors. Feeling like a grape about to face the winepress, she fell to her knees and readied herself to be embraced by the darkness.

Suddenly, a cracking sound slipped into the darkening compartment just a spit second before the doors could close down completely. Then they stopped. Surprised, she crawled a bit closer to the thin opening and peered outside. Then she gasped.

Down on the ground was Shouji Ichitaka, who was lying unconscious on his stomach. Towering over him was the trembling figure of... Misono Madoka, who was holding a thick length of wood in her hands. The woman, panting heavily, was looking at An's biological father as though wondering whether she should whap his again just in case. Apparently she decided against it, because she tossed the thing away. She still eyed the man lying at her feet uneasily, though. If An didn't know better, she would have thought the middle-aged office lady was looking at a snake poising to strike.

"Misono-san..." An said slowly as she got out of the compartment. Not that she ever expected someone to come to her rescue... but even if she did, she would never thought that someone would be Misono Madoka, the person whose freedom An just traded with her own.

Not answering her, Mariko's mother bent down and searched Ichitaka's trouser pocket. A second later, she pulled out her hand along with the contract, which she tore into pieces while her mouth twisted in disgust.

"Misono-san... why..." She found herself unable to continue due to the shock and amazement she was feeling inside.

"Don't read too much into it," Madoka snapped, appearing no friendlier that she was before. "I just hate this bastard too much to let him get away unpunished." Those amber eyes, blazing like fire in the light of the late noon sun, rounded on An. "And I don't want to owe you any favor. Nothing has changed between us, you got that?"

"Ah, okay," An said uneasily and stepped one step backward. She didn't doubt for one second that Misono Madoka meant every word she said. "Uh, anyway, we should get out of here and call the cops... LOOK OUT!" An screamed at the same time she lunged forward and hurled herself at her girlfriend's mother.

* * *

Rage flared in Misono Madoka's heart as she felt Shouji An's body crashing against hers and knocked it to the ground. 

"What in Heaven's name are you trying to do, Shouji?!" she snarled at the girl who was lying on top of her. Strangely enough, the only response she got from the brat was a soft but painful cry. Looking more carefully, she found her breath caught at the sight of the blood that was flowing out from a wide gash on the seventeen-year-old's waist.

"How dare you do that to me, damn woman?" bellowed Shouji Ichitaka, who stood above them, eyes red with murder, hand clutching a bloody knife. In an instant, she got it. The despicable man must have regained consciousness while she was talking to his daughter. And he must have tried to murder her for having spoiled his plan. Of course, he would have succeeded without Shouji An pushing her out of the way and ending up struck by her own father instead.

Horror rose in her as she stared transfixed at the blood dying her own clothes red.

"Why do you have to do so much for me... Shouji-san...?" she asked with a trembling voice.

"Because Mariko... will be very sad... if something happened to you..." the girl murmured weakly before she fell unconscious. Madoka felt tears welling in her eyes.

"I'll kill you both!" Shouji Ichitaka roared in his mindless rage and raised his knife overhead. Frightened to death, Madoka could only look at the sharp blade that was approaching, ready to plunge into her heart.

"Freeze!" someone shouted in the distance and stopped Shouji Ichitaka in his track.

Turning her head, Madoka saw a crowd of people running toward them. Many of them wore the uniforms of the Tokyo Police Department. At least five of them were holding guns in their hands.

"Damn it!" Shouji Ichitaka cursed loudly before he climbed hastily into the truck and sped away.

"An! An!" A middle-aged man, whose build was tall and wide, knelt down next to Madoka and gingerly examined the seventeen-year-old. "Someone calls the ambulance! Hurry!" he cried afterwards in agony. He sounded as though he was the one who was hurt.

"Is An okay, Ryo-san?" a teenage girl, who was accompanied by a young man, asked in a shaky and tearful voice as the policemen around her either screamed into their walkie-talkies for an ambulance or directed other people to give chase to the truck.

Suddenly, Madoka's brain registered the name. Ryo. This man had to be Sakuma Ryo, Shouji An's adoptive father.

"I don't know, Kanae," replied the man gravely as he took the unconscious seventeen-year-old off Madoka and laid her on the ground the way he would a fragile egg. Then he ripped his outer shirt into pieces and tried to hold the blood in. He didn't seem to be succeeding. "If the ambulance doesn't get here on time... An may just die from severe blood loss."

Hearing that, Madoka felt her self-restraint shatter. She buried her face into her hands and wailed as much as she did the day her husband died. It was all her fault that everything had to come to this. Had it not been for her stubbornness and homophobia, Shouji Ichitaka wouldn't have found his own daughter's weakness and manipulated it for his own again. Had it not been for her, Shouji An would have never been hurt. If the girl died, Madoka would regret it forever... and her daughter would hate her for the rest of her life.

* * *

"Answer me, damn it!" Shouji Ichitaka bellowed into his cell phone after the second ring. To his left, the calm surface of the Tokyo River gleamed like a mirror in the light of the setting sun. To his right, trees and tall buildings raced backwards more and more rapidly as he pressed the gas pedal as hard as he could. He had to find a way to get out of here. And Minamoto Iriya might just know how. 

"Shouji-san?" the voice of the woman spoke calmly.

"Thank goodness you're there." Ichitaka heaved a great sigh of relief. "Please, save me. The police are on my tail and..."

"Save you?" Iriya coldly cut him off. "You must be joking, Shouji-san."

"What?!"

"The truck has surveillance cameras, so I saw everything," said the CC Corp. woman. "I never told you to hurt anyone, and you just had to go and wound An." Her voice grew more heated with every word she spoke. "You landed yourself into this predicament, so get out of it on your own."

"You can't do this to me!" he roared into the speaker. "I did everything for your sake!"

"No, sir, you did everything for your own sake," replied Iriya.

"Listen, woman," he snarled. "If you don't get me out of this trouble, you can be sure that the police will learn about you and your company's involvement."

"They cannot do anything to me, I assure you." If the woman wasn't smiling on the other side of the line, Ichitaka would eat his boots. "They have no proof."

_"I am the proof!" _

"Only if you can speak to them." Iriya's voice grew so cold that it sent shivers slithering down his spine. He trembled. "I think I know just the perfect way to silence you." The safety locks on the truck suddenly clicked into place as the glass windows rose up and blocked every exit. Fear wrecked his body apart.

"You're trying to kill me!" he cried, switching his foot onto the break pedal and tried to slow the vehicle down. To his shock, the thing only sped up.

"Not _trying_," replied Minamoto Iriya. "This is goodbye, Shouji-san." She hung up.

The steering wheel twisted in his hand and hurled the whole truck to the left. In a loud crashing sound, the vehicle leapt into the Tokyo River. When a light on a dashboard went red, the whole world burst into flames. He screamed.

* * *

Sighing in frustration, Minamoto Iriya took her eyes away from her laptop and leaned back against her chair, one of her hand raking her hair, the other one clutching her forehead. Another failure. Now what should she say to her comrades in the organization, who had been looking forward to her victorious return? Gosh, but worse of all, Shouji An, the key to dealing with the disobedience of the Morpheus System, the collection of Morgana's fragments, was going to die unless she was taken to the hospital on time. And if she drew her last breath... Iriya shivered. The dream of the Revolutionist might never be fulfilled. 

"Minamoto Iriya," a strange voice echoed in the room and startled her. "So you are hiding in the Grand Central hotel. Very brave of you indeed." She gave a second start when she realized that the voice was coming from the speakers of her laptop, the screen of which had gone pitch black.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

"I am Helba," the voice answered. "I'm sure you have heard my name."

Iriya had. Helba was the famous hacker who had sided with Kite and his companions in the war against Morgana. She drew a sharp breath and thought that all her internal organs were turning into ice. How long had this hacker been on her tail? And how did she find Iriya?

"I have been trying to track you down for a while now," Helba continued. "You Revolutionists have been very careful in erasing your traces. But, I finally caught you." The woman's voice took on a sharp but satisfied edge.

"What do you want?" Iriya tried to be calm and addressed the threat in a rational manner. She barely succeeded.

"Eliminating a threat to The World and its Players," Helba announced, "which means you and your petty organization. That is all I'm interested in."

Despite her fear, Iriya laughed. "You are just a little hacker. What gives you the notion that you can harm a hair on our head?"

"Your computer isn't the only one that I've managed to hack into," the hacker said. "I will have you know that the mainframe at your headquarters shared the same fate."

"You're lying!" Iriya suddenly found it excruciatingly hard to breath. It had to be a bluff. It _had_ to be! They had the most talented computer scientists working for them at headquarters. She refused to believe that one hacker could infiltrate into their digital fortress!

"You shouldn't be so sure," Helba said, her voice racked with amusement. "Why don't you call them up and ask how they are doing?"

Iriya never hesitated before she pulled out her cell phone and dialed headquarters' numbers. Ten minutes passed as she waited for someone to pick up the phone, redialed, waited, and then redialed again. The result never changed. The dull ring tone was the only sound that answered her.

"It can't be," she muttered in disbelief as she let go of her cell phone and see device crack open on the floor. At headquarters, there was always someone waiting to answer calls from her. The fact that none did, meant that... perhaps what the hacker said was the truth. Shivering, she turned her attention back to her traitorous laptop.

"They are all in the police custody right now, in case you are wondering," Helba said. "I've turned in all the secret documents I downloaded from your mainframe to the Ministry of Cyber Regulations just a few hours ago. You wouldn't believe how quickly they acted, really. I guess they have been waiting for an excuse to lay their hands on CyberConnect for a long time." The woman stopped to laugh. "The larger a tree is, the more winds it catches, don't you agree?"

"You!"

"Oh, and by the way, I've recorded your conversation with Shouji Ichitaka before he died. You can be sure that it will be used as evidence against you in your trial." Her voice hardened. "I never expected you to kill him, though, so I couldn't react fast enough to save him. I would have liked it much better had he served the rest of his natural life in prison instead." Suddenly, her voice softened to almost a whisper, "This is goodbye, Minamoto Iriya."

Silence followed while the screen of her laptop brightened into life again. After a full minute of sitting in her chair in a daze, she sprang up to her feet and gathered her belonging. Before she could stuff everything into her suitcase, however, the door to her room was blasted open.

"Minamoto Iriya, I presume?" A burly man in a dark blue suit stepped inside, his hand holding a police badge. "I am Captain Kuroda from the Tokyo Police Department. You're wanted by the Ministry of Cyber Regulations. I now place you under arrest. Be aware that anything you say from this moment on may be used as evidence in court. You have the right to remain silent."

Iriya crumbled to her knee. For the first time in her life, she felt lonely... and afraid.

* * *

When Shouji An came to, she was lying on a white bed in a white room with white curtains stirring gently in the night winds. Outside her window, the full moon was shining amid a starry sky. Inside, there was her girlfriend, a being that was just as dazzling, sitting on her wheelchair by the bed, her hands holding An's left very tightly. No one else was in the room. 

"Are you feeling okay, An?" Mariko said worriedly when she noticed that An had woken up. That was when she noticed the moisture in her girlfriend's amber eyes. "Don't move. Your wound is still tender. It may open again."

"I'm okay, I think," she replied. Move? She didn't have enough strength to lift a finger... "How long have I been unconscious?"

"A few hours," her sweetheart answered. "I was scared to death, An. The doctor said that you lost so much blood you could have died." Her voice was shaking violently toward the end, and her hands held An's more tightly than ever. She seemed on the verge of tears, too.

"I'm sorry I worried you, Mariko," An said, feeling moisture gathering in her own eyes.

"I'm just glad you're okay now, An," the young woman said. "And... thank you for protecting my mom even after all that she's done to you." She leaned over and gave An a light kiss on the lips.

"You're welcome." An felt herself blush. "Is she okay, though?"

"She is." Mariko nodded. "She's sitting outside right now, talking to Ryo-san."

An blinked. "My dad? About what?"

"I have no clue." Her girlfriend gave her a rueful smile. "Why don't you ask him later? He may tell you. Oh, Kanae and Hiroyuki are outside too. They were here went you were still sleeping, and they just left to get some coffee. I think they intended to stay here until you woke."

"Hiroyuki?" An raised an eyebrow. "Who's that?"

"Ah. That's Silver Knight's real name."

"Silver Knight?" An repeated in amusement. What was that rigid, inflexible former captain of the Crimson Knights doing here?

"Apparently, he and Kanae had been meeting up regularly behind our back." Mariko winked at her. "I asked Kanae why she didn't tell us, and she said she was afraid that _I_ would tease her. But I think she likes him, whether she knows it or not."

An laughed softly at the revelation. To think that Silver Knight and Kanae of all people would come together when they acted like dogs and cats around each other in The World. She stopped and winced shortly afterwards, though, as her laughter appeared to have excite her wound a little bit.

"Careful," Mariko said as her hand gently stroke An's head.

"Okay," she murmured happily in response. Then suddenly, a thought struck her. "You said your mom was outside?"

"Yes."

"Then... why did she let you stay in here with me?" An said slowly. "I thought she..."

"You saved her life, my love," the blue-haired woman whispered. "Do you think she was so heartless that she would try to separate us again? She was sorry that she treated you badly before, An. She told me that."

"Then... then..." An stuttered, unable to believe what her girlfriend just said, "she is okay... with me and you now?" Tears welled up in her eyes again.

"Of course," Mariko replied gently. "It still makes her a bit uneasy, I think, but she's accepted you as my girlfriend. And that's all that matters, ne?"

"Yes. That's all that matters. Thank goodness," An said, feeling hot tears rolling down her cheeks. Quietly, Mariko dabbed at them with her sleeves. She would have kissed An again, too, had someone not knocked softly on the door.

"I heard you talking," the voice of An's adoptive father said. "Has An woken up, Mariko?"

"Yes, come in, Ryo-san," her sweetheart answered.

The door opened and admitted Sakuma Ryo, who was grinning more brightly than ever before. An blinked. What made the man seem so happy? Even Mariko was staring at him in surprise.

"How are you feeling, kiddo?" Ryo said as he pulled out a chair from nearby and sat down next to the bed.

"I'm okay. What about you, dad? Did you win a lottery when I was sleeping or something?"

"Something like that." The novelist nodded, his huge grin unfaltering on his lips. "I have bad news and good news. Which one do you want to hear first?"

"Bad news!" An and Mariko said at the same time.

Ryo looked at each of them in great amusement before he nodded and said, "Well, you will have to stay here until tomorrow night for further checkup. It means that you'll need to ear the horrible hospital food that they serve in here."

"What kind of bad news is that?" An scoffed.

"You don't have to worry about that, Ryo-san." Mariko gave the man a smile. "I'll ask my mom to prepare food for An. I don't think she'll refuse."

"Okay then. Now for the good news. You are to stop going to class in Japan for one year, An."

"Eh?" An frowned. "What do you mean I am to...?" She stopped abruptly as what her father said hit her like a club. Japan. One year. Mariko took a deep breath, her eyes transfixed on Ryo's face, which looked like a child at his birthday party.

"Well, I didn't say you could stop going to school per se," the novelist said, obviously enjoying himself. "You are, however, to participate in a Student exchange program with a high school in California."

"But... but how...? I thought you didn't have the money for me to go to the U.S." An mumbled breathlessly.

"I didn't. And still don't. At least not yet." Ryo winked at both of them. "But a kind lady has agreed to let you go with Mariko there by giving up her own spot. Can you guess whom?"

"My... mom?" Mariko's eyes were as wide as they could be. And her mouth was hanging open. An, on the other hand, was at a loss for words.

"Apparently, you moved her greatly by saving her life, An." Her father smiled broadly. "She didn't say that, mind you. I think she'd die before she admits it. What she did say, however, was that she feared she might not find a job one year later, when she came back from the U.S. That was why she needed to stay in Tokyo and kept working, was what she also claimed." Ryo rolled his eyes. "Oh, and she has a message for you. _'If you don't care for my daughter properly when you're in _ _California__, I'm going to skin you when you return.'_" He laughed at that.

When Mitsuki Kanae and the man named Hiroyuki came into the room a few minutes later, they found An crying like a baby in Mariko's arms while her father was sitting uncomfortably on his chair. Between her sobs and her tears, she thought that the wound she took in Misono Madoka's stead was worth it. If she had had to take a dozen more, it would still be worth it. The Gods standing witness, she would hand over everything she ever owned just for the possibility that she didn't have to be separated from the one she loved. Oh, how she had prayed every night for a miracle.

An never thought that she would get one. And certainly, nor did she expect that such miracle would be handed to her by someone who she thought would hate her until the end of time.

* * *

Standing outside of the room, the door of which was left ajar, Misono Madoka silently listened to the sobbing sound echoing out from inside. Even her own daughter was crying. Yet, the tears that she shed were happy ones, and those were what convinced Madoka that her decision was correct. She didn't want to, couldn't, admit it, but Mariko needed Shouji An more than she needed Madoka. She sighed. Besides, although the seventeen-year-old was still young and inexperienced, there was no doubt that she would do everything in her power to keep Madoka's daughter safe. 

Sighing again, she stepped away from the room. Now she needed to call her supervisor and beg her to pretend that Madoka never handed in a resignation letter. She hoped that she could cook up a reason good enough to convince the elderly lady.

* * *

_Two years later. _

* * *

"An, where do you want to put the bookcase?" Mariko said as she rose to her feet and tried to get a good look around their modest apartment. Moving boxes were all around the places, and they had taken up so much space that she found it rather hard to walk around. She only wished they had paid a little bit more attention before they dumped everything into the living room. "An?" The nineteen-year-old was nowhere to be seen. Mariko only wondered where the girl went. 

She walked to the bedroom and found her sweetheart there, sitting on the bed with her cell phone propped against her ear. The conversation, whoever it was with, was already over, though.

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow, dad," An said. "You take care too. And don't use the microwave too often, or I'll throw the thing away when I see it next. Bye." She hung up.

"Dad called?" Mariko murmured softly as she settled down by her spouse's side on the bed. Behind them, above the headboard, on the wall was the picture of their wedding day. She got to admit, she never appeared happier in her life. Although... she kinda wished that she didn't wear her wedding band to college. That way, her classmates would never have realized that she was married. Those relentless people kept on teasing her and wanting to meet An so that they could tease them both at the same time. It took a great deal of effort just to fend them off.

"Yes." An nodded and put her head on Mariko's shoulder and her arm around Mariko's waist. "He wanted to know if we needed any help. You know, with us moving out and all."

"He could have called a few hours ago, when we were actually carrying those heavy boxes," she joked as her hand brushed her lover's hair, now shoulder-length, affectionately.

"He would have come if he could." An laughed. "But he couldn't. He got an appointment with the publisher, you see."

"Ah, for his newest novel?"

"Yup."

"His other ones are selling really well, aren't they?"

"Considering that he just bought B.T. a new BMW... I would say yes." An giggled.

Sakuma Ryo-san, when he knew that they were moving out, had offered to help them financially so that they could have a house of their own. They refused because they wanted to build everything with their own hands. Besides, this was their sanctuary. It wasn't right to borrow someone's money for that. It was indeed a good thing, though, that the novelist took no offense and respected their wish. He was truly a good and understanding dad. Her biological one was like that, too, before the accident robbed him from her and her mother.

"Mariko, I learned something very interesting when I was talking to dad just now." An sounded terribly amused.

"What is it?"

"Can you guess who was it that got you the treatment offer from the charity organization in the U.S?"

"Tell me. I'm bad at guessing games, An."

"B.T.!" The brown-haired girl giggled.

"For real?"

"Yes! It was a slip of the tongue on dad's part. Apparently, B.T. forbade him to tell us. Oh, she was also the person who gave him the VIP passes to LaQua."

"That sounds just like her." Mariko smiled. Yes, it was indeed B.T.-like to do a good deed without taking credit for it. She would need to thank her later. Treating her to dinner, or lunch, someday, perhaps.

"Oh, and before I forget. Mom called just before dad did," An announced. "She asked us to come over later tonight to have dinner with her. She thought we'd be too busy to cook, so she would do that for us. I accepted her invitation, by the way."

"Good thing that you did." Mariko laughed. "I'm too tired to cook now."

Misono Madoka, Mariko and An's beloved mother, was now doing quite well in her career, too. Since her supervisor's retirement about a year ago, she had been appointed to hold the same post. With that, she now no longer had to work night and days for a meager monthly salary and had much more time to do the things that she loved. Which, interestingly enough, involved taking a night-tine Flower arrangement class at Mariko's college. Madoka seemed to be having a lot of fun these days, so Mariko was very happy for her.

"What time did she say we could come by?" she asked.

"Around eight," her sweetheart answered.

"Hmm, two more hours to go." She eyed her sweetheart mischievously. "What do you think we should do to pass the time?" Even as she spoke, she gently lowered the nineteen-year-old to the soft mattress, which happened to be Sakuma Ryo-san's wedding gift, and pinned her hands on either side of her head.

"Um... go back to unpacking?" An swallowed. Her breathing was uneven, and her face, under the fluorescent light tubes hanging on the ceiling, was very red.

"Bad idea," Mariko said with a smile. She took one hand away to use it to unbutton her lover's collar shirt. She intentionally drew her palm across the girl's heaving chest, too, and elicited a soft cry from her in the process.

"I thought you were tired," An whispered, her mouth slightly opened as though inviting kisses.

"Too tired to cook. That's what I said." Mariko laughed softly into the crook of her sweetheart's neck. The girl could only whimper aloud. She fell quiet, though, as soon as Mariko claimed her lips and gave her a kiss that seemed to burn herself inside out. Now that they had their own place, their life as a couple truly began. This small apartment, their sanctuary, their shelter, their home sweet home, where she and An were going to spend the next stage of their life together, was where she and her heart belonged. As long as An continued to love her and stay by her side, this world would always remain her paradise.

* * *

_THE END. _

* * *


End file.
